A Fight Alone
by ShadowLea
Summary: Undercover on Earth, Cut off from support and her brothers and sisters, On the run from ONI, Spartan-II Shadow-012 races against time to stop an Innie attack on a meeting between the UN and the UNSC commanders. The year is 2529.
1. Infiltration

Halo: A Fight Alone

Halo: A Fight Alone

Part I

**November 12, 2525,**

**Planet Aranox**

Darkness. Welcome for some, a horror to others. To some, it could be a relief to be able to hide away from reality, to save oneself from the events of the day. To others, however, it provided a source of distress, feeling trapped with no way out. One way or another, the night could mean so many things. A chance at sleep, a party in some bar, the perfect cover for an Op, or guard duty.

To the small group of grunts patrolling the area, it was anything but pleasant. They were on guard duty, and were supposed to keep watch for any enemy forces. They were as close to the campfire as possible, pointing their weapons at anything that they thought moved, particularly their shadows.

One of the grunts shot the ground about half a centimeter behind another, causing the near-victim to scream "enemy!!" and run around in panic. The other ones started running away, hiding behind rocks, trees and each other. After what seemed like an hour, a braver grunt went to check out the dead enemy. What was on the ground, however, was not a dead enemy.

"Enemy no real. Where he go?" Stupid as the grunt was, he never realized it had been his own shadow. After a few seconds, all of them had crawled back to the campfire, this time going to sleep.

Which was a really bad idea for them, to say the least. A small, glowing blue orb not much larger then a child's fist dropped down from the sky, landing on top of a grunt's head. Needless to say, this woke the grunt, who instantly realized he was going to die.

"GRENADE!!" he yelled, running in circles until said grenade exploded, blowing grunt-pieces everywhere.

High up in one of the trees, SPARTAN Shadow-012 tried to stifle a laugh, failing utterly. In a silent rustle, she dropped down, landing in the ground with a soft thud. Sweeping the area once, she instantly blend back into the shadows.

"_You know"_ Dana Sullers voice said over the comlink, _"you could try sneaking around the patrols for once."_ Though technically a civilian, Dana had been assigned as the Spartan's intelligence provider because of her remarkable ability to talk insanely fast, and the fact that she was the only one not annoying the hell out of Shadow.

"Now where's the fun in that? Besides, the tree I was just in is smarter then these guys. Any word?" Moving from one shadow to another, the young woman called Shadow did justice to her name.

"_None yet. Don't count on air support, they've got guns posted along all approach paths. And I mean really big guns. The kind that would blow us out of orbit and back to ea__rth in one shot. And judging from what I've picked up of the conversations between our AI and the captain, things are going to get nasty really soon. There's a fleet incoming." _

"ETA?"

"_2 hours, tops. We can't send anyone down to help either, any transport would be shot down instantly. Sorry Shadow, You're on your own. Hurry up and get out of there before that fleet gets here. I don't care how good you guys are, there's no way you can handle an entire armada on your own. So hurry up."_

"Heh, I'd love to try that once. Alright. Entering complex now. Requesting radio silence. 012, out." Using a small knife, Shadow opened up a ventilations roster, only to vanish inside within a few seconds.

**November 12, 2525,**

**UNSC Frigate **_**Indomitable **_

**Orbit, Planet Aranox**

The planet Aranox looked like a brown sphere from space, covered with occasional green patches from orbit. Two moons and a field of asteroids orbited the planet. There were 8 other planets in the system, but only 2 of them were habitable, the two farthest away from the sun. The system's sun, a class B supergiant, was in its final stages, and would turn into a supernova anywhere in the next two months.

The UNCS frigate _Indomitable_ was in orbit over the planet Aranox, monitoring the situation down on the planet. Gayiyla, its AI, was standing on her holopad, looking not too happy with the situation. The AI looked like an ancient Greek warrior, currently with her arms crossed and an angry look on her face.

"Why, exactly, aren't I allowed to shoot at the defensive cannons? You know as well as I do that one hit from those will tear the ship apart. Better to take them out before that happens."

Captain Aren Sinns, however, did not react to the AI's angry tone of voice. He kept staring straight ahead from his seat, looking at the planet.

"Because, Gayiyla, if we do that they'll know we know they're there, and they'll be on high alert. Right now, they're thinking we don't know they're around. Let's keep the element of surprise for now."

"We won't have it for long, with that fleet on the way. I hope you're not planning on sticking around waiting for them to turn us into space dust."

"We can't leave yet, we're playing taxi service today, and the meter's still runnin'.

"Then you'd better charge a fat bill, because a new ship is not cheap." And with that, Gayiyla disappeared off the holopad.

Sinns sighed, as always, annoyed at the AI. "If I never have to work with an AI again, it'll be too soon."

Never having liked 'smart' AI, Captain Aren Sinns disliked working with them. They were arrogant, too powerful, and unpredictable. Because they were too smart. Not that 'dumb' AI's were any better, considering 'dumb' merely meant they weren't quite as fast and as able to learn as their 'smart' counterparts. The fact that their current AI was a 'smart' AI did not improve his views on them. Turning to the communications station, he set aside his thoughts.

"Miss Sullers, inform our agent of the arriving fleet. Tell her she's got 2 hours, then she's on her own. Not that that would make much of a difference, we can't do anything with those guns down there."

"I'm on it. Anything else you'd like me to pass along? Maybe what's on the canteen menu? Or the taxi costs?"

"Just do it."

Dana Sullers turned back to her console and got to work. Having asked the AI to keep a sensor locked on what was going on down on the planet, she could monitor Shadow-012's process, while keeping her informed of trouble. Right now though, it looked like instead dof sneaking around and avoiding the patrols, she was engaging them. Activating the comm., she spoke to the women down on the planet, annoyed.

"You know, you could try sneaking _around_ the patrols for once."

_"Now where's the fun in that? Besides, the tree I was just in is smarter then these guys. Any word?" _came the reply, followed by the sound of rustling leaves.

"None yet. Don't count on air support, they've got guns posted along all approach paths. And I mean really big guns. The kind that would blow us out of orbit and back to earth in one shot. And judging form what I've picked up of the conversations between our AI and the captain, things are going to get nasty really soon. There's a fleet incoming."

"_ETA?"_

"2 hours, tops. We can't send anyone down to help either, any transport would be shot down instantly." Sighing, Dana checked her status screens again. "Sorry Shadow, You're on your own. Hurry up and get out of there before that fleet gets here. I don't care how good you guys are, there's no way you can handle an entire army on your own. So hurry up." Special forces operatives were good, but this was overkill.

"_Heh, I'd love to try that once__" _Dana snorted at the comment. _I'm sure you would. " All right. Entering complex now. Requesting radio silence. 012, out."_

Turning back to the captain, Dana realized he'd been listening in on the conversation already.

"I say we let her take out that armada on her own. Who knows, maybe it works. Saves us the trouble"

"You can't be serious."

"I was. Forget it. Gayiyla, do you have an estimate on the size of that fleet yet?"

The holopad flickered to life.

"I'm detecting signatures from over a dozen ships, of which at least two Assault Carriers, 18 CCS-class battle cruisers, and twice as many smaller carriers."

Sinns was shocked. "That's one badass fleet. Why in the name of God would they send out such a big fleet here? They can't possibly….."

"Sir?"

"But how would they.. That's impossible. They can't possibly have…."

"Do we have to guess the rest? Or do we get to hear what's wrong?" Having turned to watch the conversation, Dana thought the captain had gone crazy.

"Just a second. Gayiyla, has there been any chatter on the covenant channels whatsoever?" The AI closed her eyes, listening carefully.

"Strangely enough, no. they've been awfully quiet for the past few hours, not even the usual religious nonsense. Sir, what is it?"

"Trouble. Move us behind the second moon. Miss Sullers, inform our agent that we're going to be out of range, and tell her that her mission may have been compromised."

"I'm on it." Dana turned around, opening up the channel.

**November 12, 2525,**

**Planet Aranox**

Down on the planet, Shadow was having a very bad feeling about moving into the next room. The room was littered with boxes and pillars, and had only one exit, which was directly behind a large row of supply crates. Some of the crates were large enough for a hunter to hide behind. Along the walls were multiple pillars with various inscriptions.

Looking for another way to the other side, she spotted a line of water pipes on the ceiling about 5 meters above her. . Using one of the smaller crates as a step up, she leaped onto the pipes, hanging upside down, and started crawling to the other side. _Halfway there… well, I'll be damned. Those sneaky bastards. _Down on the ground, hiding behind a row of crates, was a pair of hunters. They seemed to be waiting for someone. _They can't know I'm here._

"_Shadow, you there?"_

"Which part of radio silence did you not hear? There's two hunters about a meter below me!" Shadow wispered, annoyed.

_"Well, get out of there then!"_

Instead of replying, Shadow continued climbing. The far wall came closer every second. She only had about half a meter to go when the pipe suddenly fell, dropping Shadow to the floor. Looking up, she saw the air shimmer. Twelve stealthed elites suddenly became visible.

"Ah, fuck. Hiya fellahs, you might not by any luck know where I can find the ladies room?"

Both the hunters charged up their fuel rod cannons.

"Didn't think so."

_"Shadow, what the hell is going on?"_

"The Covenant decided to throw me a barbeque party. Only I'm the one who's going to be roasted."

* * *

**This was only the first chapter. Wether i continue depends on the ammount of reviews i get. I don't care if it's flames or praise.**

**The one that guesses correctly what Gayiyla means, and from which language it is, gets a character of own choosing in the story.**


	2. Trouble

****

**A/N: So far no-one has guessed the meaning of Gayiyla's name yet, So i'll give a hint. You won't find it on Halopedia, so don't bother looking there. You also won't find it in a dictionary of any languages on our planet.  
My source of inspiration for the fic? Hours and hours of Halo 2 and 3 soundtracks. **

**This is the beta version of this chapter, so if you encounter any errors, lemme know. if not, then i'll leave it like this. my beta reader has a new videogame and some tests, so he's rather busy. I figured that wouldn't be all that fair to those who wait for a next chapter, since i ended with a cliffhanger. So i decided to put up the chapter after reading it 50 times. Don't worry. this one ends with a cliffhanger too! evil grin  
Okay. On with the reviews.**

**Jakster02**: I'm glad you liked it. I tried putting in a lot more "...said". I hope it's a little better now ;)

**D.Doberman: **I've already writen chapter 3, but the 10 Helljumpers onboard the Indomitable are going to see some action soon enough ;)

* * *

Halo: A Fight Alone

Part 2

**November 12, 2525,  
****UNSC Frigate **_**Indomitable,  
**_**Orbit, Planet Aranox**

The bridge of the UNSC frigate _Indomitable_ had fallen into silence, everyone was waiting for the captain to act. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of the occasionally bleeping computers and the sounds of power running through the ship. Gayiyla decided to break the silence which she felt lasted way too long.

"Now that we've lost the element of surprise, can I take out those guns?"

"Do it." Captain Sinns said, standing up to get a better look at the planet.

The ship started moving, shaking as Gayiyla fired on the plasma turrets. The ship shook violently a few seconds later, throwing everyone standing off their feet, obviously the effect of an explosion. Looking mildly upset, Gayiyla turned to the captain, raising her voice to get over the alarms sounding through the ship. The captain was climbing back into his chair after rolling through half the bridge.

"Ground-Turret one taken out, the second one blasted all of my portside cannons to pieces." Shortly after Gayiyla had said that, a second explosion shook the ship, setting of another set of alarms. Irritated, Gayiyla shut them of with a wave of her digital hand.

"And there goes the rest. Whatever it is you're planning to do, make it fast, because the MAC cannon is all I have left, and firing it on a ground target is not possible!" The ship was severely underpowered, even for a frigate. Of the available armament, half was missing or never even installed. The ship had left the dock without having had time to resupply the archer pods, never mind the Shiva nukes. The mission had been an urgent one, urgent enough to leave in a haste with an only half build ship.

Silence was all that followed. When the captain didn't answer, instead he just stared out of the window, the AI decided to get herself an answer.

"Captain!"

"Very well. Get us out of here. We'll come back later when we've repaired our weapons." Deciding there was nothing more they could do, the captain decided running was the best available option. They weren't going to be of much help being in a thousand pieces.

Gayiyla activated the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, and the ship jumped into slipspace, leaving the system.

XXX

**November 12, 2525,  
****Covenant Research Facility,  
****Planet Aranox**

Down on the planet, things weren't going much better. Spartan Shadow-012 found herself in a somewhat terrible position, on the ground.

"Ah, fuck. Hiya fellahs, you might not by any luck know where I can find the ladies room?"

Surrounded by 12 elites and a pair of hunters, she figured things couldn't possibly have been worse. A green glow and a whining sound however, cut through that idea. Both hunters were charging up their fuel rod cannons. Shadow glared at the guns, knowing that one shot of those would disintegrate her instantly.

"Didn't think so." She figured getting up would be a very bad idea right now.

"_Shadow, what the hell is going on?" _Dana Sullers voice cut in over the com.

"The Covenant decide to throw me a barbeque party. Only I'm the one going to be roasted."

It took Dana a few seconds to realize what Shadow had meant. Once reality sunk in, she sounded upset.

_"You're supposed to be good at this! What did you do, tell them you were there?! Couldn't they have send anyone else instead of someone who has no idea what she's doing?" _

"Hey, I'm not the one who broke radio silence. I know perfectly well what I'm doing. I'm also the one who they forgot to provide with some decent intell. If you don't like it, head back and ask them to send someone else. Oh. Wait. I'm supposed to be dead, so you can't do that. Now get off the com, before even the Covenant start laughing at me." Shadow snapped, shutting off her end of the com. _Now for the biggest problem… _

The Elites were baffled.

"This one is no more then a whelp! Do the Humans send their children to battle us?!" One of the elites exclaimed, surprised. So far they had only encountered the regular soldiers, and they had not been much of a challenge. To be faced with children was an insult. Which race would send their youths to do the battles they dared not to do themselves? There was no honor in such a thing.

"Shut it split-lip, before I shove my boot down your throat." Shadow growled, annoyed at the comment. Technically, Shadow was only 16 years old, but the advanced training had made her far more mature then her true age. That was something the Covenant wasn't supposed to know however, not for the next few decades atleast, so she bit back a comment, and settled for an insult. Throwing insults at the enemy was always a fun thing to do, and Shadow knew being silent wouldn't get her much further anyway. _Better try to distract them…_

The comment amused the Elite, however it did not amuse the Zealot in charge, who in turn rammed the back of his plasma sword against the side of the spartan's head. Humans were too smart mouthed for his taste.

"Oh! You fucking son of a bitch!" The force of the blow send Shadow falling over on her side, blurring her vision at the same time. She rolled back to a sitting position on the ground, glaring angrily at the Zealot. "Wow, you're even uglier from down here!" That got her another blow, this time hard enough to send her flying across the room towards one of the Hunters and their spikes shields.

Shadows body reacted lightning fast before she realized it, curling herself up into a ball and kicking out her legs, effectively rolling herself away from the deadly spikes. Looking up after skidding to a halt, she looked with a horrified expression at the huge spikes.

"You really need to consider a new wardrobe!" She exclaimed before she could stop herself.

"I tire of this." The Zealot spoke. Walking over to Shadow, he picked the young Spartan up by her neck and threw her across the room to the other side.

The last thing Shadow saw and heard was the wall and the sound of two fuel rod cannons being fired, then her consciousness was plunged into an endless darkness.

XXX

**November 12, 2525,  
****UNSC Frigate **_**Indomitable  
**_**Edge of the Anor System.**

"Gayiyla, status report!" Captain Sinns barked at the pedestal next to him. The AI appeared, looking like she was busy, her hands going out to all sides as if she was touching invisible screens.

"4 cannons destroyed. All remaining 4 cannons offline, portside hull breached but being sealed as we speak. 20 men injured, 4 dead. MAC cannon fully operational, and our archer pods are still as empty as before. All in all, I'd say we did fairly well." The AI said, sarcasm sounding in the last comment.

The captain got up, walking over to the main viewscreen. He stared into space for a few seconds, lost in thought.

"How long before we can return? I don't want to leave our agent on her own down there."

"At the current rate of repairs, I'd say next week. But with that fleet getting here in less then an hour and a half, we're effectively useless. All we can do is play target practice and hope they can't aim." The AI closed her eyes, while calculations flowed through the air around her. "I can get you two cannons back within an hour, but that's all. We do still have both Longsword squadrons and 3 Pelicans. "

"That's not going to last us long against that fleet. As for ground personnel?"

"Aching to fight, sir." Gayiyla said, while waiving her hand at a small file flying across her.

Aside from under armed, the ship was severely undermanned. Out of the usual 1200 marines, only 30 were actually on board for this mission. The whole thing was supposed to be a covert operation, and the marines were only there incase everything went to hell. Of the standard 50 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, only 10 were on the ship. The ship only had two Longsword squadrons instead of the usual 5, and 10 pelicans instead of 20. Sinns was staring to get the idea the whole mission was a failure from the beginning.

Their mission was to escort Spartan-012 to the planet Aranox, and then pick her up again once her mission was over. Not having been briefed on the Spartan's mission, Captain Sinns had ordered Gayiyla to provide him with the details. Down on that planet, the Covenant were supposedly working on a new type of weapon. The spooks at ONI had intercepted a transmission about the weapon, and had decided to send someone over to check it out. Because the lab was bound to be heavily guarded, it was decided that a full assault would end with too many casualties. Instead, they decided to send a child. That still puzzled Sinns. The woman, if you could call her that, was 16 years old. He had been briefed on the Spartan-II project, and 012's case in particular, but still had difficulties accepting the whole idea. Apparently, Shadow-012 had been listed as killed by some disease, and had then been deployed on this mission. Why they listed her as dead, Sinns had no idea. These kids were trained for Black ops, so why would it matter if one went on one and the others knew? It didn't make sense to him.

Setting aside his thoughts, Sinns turned his back to the window and looked at the AI. Gayiyla was still busy shifting through files and doing rapid calculations. To his left, someone spoke up.

"Sir, we need to return fast. The last communication we had was that she was in deep trouble. We may need to bail her out of there." It was Dana Sullers, sitting at a monitoring station. She didn't look too happy.

"We can't. We're defenseless and we'd be dead the moment we got in range of that ground turret." It was Gayiyla that spoke up.

"We can't just leave her there! If they capture her, who knows what'll happen. What they'll learn!"

"From what I've been told, she can take care of herself. She'll be fine, she's a trained soldier." The captain said, turning back to look at the stars.

"She's a child! How can she possibly...- She isn't special forces, is she? That was a lie!" Dana had been told that the woman was a skilled special forces operative. The lack of a last name had bothered Dana, but when she had asked, she had been told that it was to protect the people related to the woman. Dana figured that was a smart reason, and had accepted it. Now, she wasn't so sure that was the truth.

"That's classified information. We'll get her out of there once we have the chance. Until then, she's on her own. And I have a feeling she'll be fine. Gayiyla, notify me when the repairs are finished or something happens. I'll be in my quarters." At that, captain Sinns turned and walked off the bridge.

Turning to the AI, Dana Sullers sighed.

"I suppose you can't tell me either then?"

"You don't even want to know." And with that, Gayiyla vanished in a cloud of white pixels.

_Yes I do want to know. _Dana turned back to her console, going over the last few logs.

**TBC... **


	3. Escape

**A/N: Well, still no luck on Gayiyla's name. it's not an Anagram, scrambling it won't work. it's in an alien language, so i'll help out a tad. it's a language from the Star Wars universe.  
Now, I just can't seem to get Blow Me Away out of my head. so i'll just keep singing "Only the strongest will survive, Lead me to heaven when we die, I am the shadow on the wall, I'll be the one to save us all. "(yes, a fitting song, i know. it IS a Halo song after all... :D) while i finish 4. expect it somewhere this week or the next.  
On to the review. (CARLO! where's yours?! you promised!)**

**Jakster02:** I'm glad to hear it :) At first i was going to stick with the whole standard thing, but i figured it would be a lot more fun if Shadow was actually going to have her own personality. glad you like it.

**D.Doberman:** No, backwards isn't going to help you much. Anyway, this chapter has a marine in it, but i'm planning on getting the helljumpers some action somewhere around chapter 4/5. (4 is almost done, so it's probably going to be 5).

**My betareader is still busy, so if you encounter errors or things that are just incorect, please please tell me! (i am not blaming my betareader though, i know i'd do the same in his situation ;)) And i didn't end in a too cruel cliifhanger this time. **

**Oh, and Sanders wasn't based on any particular person, although he kinda reminds me of John. **_( :sigh: No, not THAT John. _He_ doesn't talk that much xD)_

* * *

Halo: A Fight Alone

Part 3

**November 13, 2525,  
Covenant Assault Carrier****_ Idle Worship  
_High orbit Aranox**

"Hey kid, wake up." A voice pierced through her state of unconsciousness, waking Shadow-012 up. The instant consciousness returned, she found herself wishing she could pass out again. A sharp pain ran from the back of her head down to her shoulder, and she winced. When she rubbed the back of her head, she felt some dried blood.

"Ow… Where the hell am I? Wait. I'm not dead? Who are you?" She asked the owner of the voice.

"You're in the brig of a covenant ship, beats me which one, you look very much alive, and I'm private Jason Sanders, UNSC marine corps." The voice, private Sanders, said.

"The brig huh? Figures." Shadow got up, walking around the small cell. She was measuring it, it's size, walls, entrance, everything. When she was done, she had a bunch of info, but no use for it. Yet. The cell was about two meters wide, a meter deep with purple iron bars as a front wall instead of the usual force field barrier she'd been briefed on. In the cell directly opposite to hers, Sanders was watching her with mild interest. Shadow glanced down, noting the dirt on her black infiltration suit. She brushed it off, irritated, then went back to measuring the strength of the walls and floor.

"Don't bother, I've already tried everything. Even if ya get out, there's still a ship full'a covenant between here and the nearest way off the ship. So. Whoever you are, what brings ya to this little vacation spot in hell?

"That's classified. And the name's Shadow." Shadow replied without thinking, currently checking out the rest of the brig. "Are we the only UNSC personnel here? What planet were you stationed on?"

"I'm the only one, yeah. And I was stationed on Harvest. Alien bastards killed my whole battalion and threw me in this brig. Where you from?"

"Reach."

"Family lives there? "

"Something like that." Having finished her examination of the room, she settled down against the wall. She huffed when a lock of long, light brown hair fell into her hazel coloured eyes. Annoyed, she brushed it aside, but it fell back again instantly. She sighed, and pulled the band out of her hair, then tied her hair back into a high ponytail.

"What the hell brings ya out here then?? Ya're by far not old enough to've joined the Corps. What are ya, 15?" Sanders asked.

"16. And it's still as classified as it was 2 minutes ago."

Sanders sighed. "Still thinking'a getting outta here?."

"I'm not going to sit here and wait for these alien bastards to scan me and learn a lot more then they're supposed to. In a few minutes they're going to change the guards, so by now they should've slacked off a bit. You with me?" Shadow said while getting off of the floor and walking over to the front.

"Sure."

"Okay, you didn't see this." Grabbing 20 bars, Shadow gave both of them a hard pulls, creating an opening. The alien metal protested heavily, groaning under the strain.

"Already tried that, it didn't.. whoa! How'd ya do that?!" Sanders said, looking more then a little shocked.

"Classified." Satisfied that the opening was wide enough, Shadow crawled through. She walked over to Sanders' cell, and started pulling apart two of the bars. By the time she was halfway through, the main doors opened.

"Fuck." Shadow and Sanders said at the same time.

An Elite walked in.

Shadow reacted without thinking, punching the Elite in the face before anyone knew what was happening. The Elite roared with anger, kicking the Spartan in the gut while reaching for his rifle. Before it could reach the weapon, Shadow had leaped towards him.

Seeing that he would not reach the rifle in time, the elite grabbed his plasma sword and activated it. He flashed the Sangheili equivalent of a grin (How he does that with four mandibles will remain a mystery to us all.) and raised the sword.

"Eep!" Shadow saw the flash of the sword just in time, and made a mad attempt to change directions. She ended up rolling to the left over the floor. Not wasting a second, she turned and kicked the Elite in the back of his legs. The Elite however didn't fall over, and kept his balance. Seeing the Spartan getting up, he aimed the most powerful kick he could manage towards the young woman's head.

Shadow threw up her arm in an instinctive reaction to protect herself, and caught the kick full on with her right arm. Giving a soft yelp in pain, she used the Elite's moment of surprise to dive for the plasma rifle. Rolling over it to grab it and using her momentum to get up, she spinned around and emptied half the batteries power into the alien's face. After about 45 shots, he finally went down. Walking over to the dead alien, she fired another 6 shots into him to be certain.

"Sweet dreams split lip." She said, and turned around to continue her work on the bars.

Sanders was speechless. When he managed to say anything, it was: "They teach ya that at school?"

"You could say that, yeah. Okay, this should be wide enough."

The private climbed out, walking over to the Elite to see if he carried any more weapons. Finding nothing besides two plasma grenades and the sword, he grabbed what he could and walked over to the door.

"You know how to handle one of those?" Shadow said, indicating the sword.

"Aaaah…no."

"Give me that then. And hand me those grenades, will ya?" Shadow said, handed the marine the plasma rifle and tokaing the sword and the grenades. After checking the remaining charge on the sword, she walked over to the door, standing at the left side. Sanders covered the right side of the door, and Shadow hit the release. The door opened, and Shadow primed and tossed a plasma grenade through the small square opening in the middle. On the other side, the voice of an Elite shouted "NO!" shortly before blue blood splattered through the door. They both ran through the door, the marine headed for the pile of corpses while Shadow headed over to a computer terminal against the wall.

"Eat that you stupid alien!" Sanders shouted, kicking the remains of the dead elite in the face for good measure. Satisfied the Sangheili had gotten what he deserved, Sanders headed over to the woman standing at the terminal. "Cracked it yet?"

"Do I look like an AI to you? This would go a lot faster if I could actually understand more then 2 words of their language."

"You're randomly pressing buttons?!"

"That usually works well enough for me. Ah. There we go, I'm in." A schematic of the ship appeared on the screen, covered in various symbols that represented words. Okay, I recognize _bridge, engine _and_ hangar._ The last one is where we should go, but we're going to pass through the engine room after 2 doors, and this" she pointed at a small room just off the next one. "is where they most likely have stored my gear. I'll need to go fetch that first." The download was finished, and Shadow pulled the datachip out again and slipped it into her pocket.

"I won't say no. Lets go." Sanders said, enthusiastically. Having grabbed another plasma rifle, he raised both weapons and headed for the door in a dramatic manner.

"Where do you think you're going?" Shadow called after him looking at him with her hands on her hips.

"The hangar!" Sanders said in a dramatic voice.

"The hangar is that way, Sherlock. That door leads to the main barracks. " Pointing at the door opposite to the one Sanders was about to open. The private gulped, walking backwards slowly towards the young woman. When he got to the right door, he let out a deep breath. Turning around, he stood in front of the door, hefting both guns.

"Once you're done playing hero, can we move out?"

Looking to the woman, the marine noticed that she was serious, and went to cover the right side of the door. Shadow took the left wall, and hit the release. Not hearing any sounds this time, she saved the last grenade for later and stepped through the door. The room was just a small room with only two doors and a few panels on the wall.

"Wait here." The Spartan said, while she headed for the door on the right. Opening it up, she slipped inside, and returned a few seconds later carrying a small backpack, a BR55 and an M6D.

"What've you got in there?" Sanders asked, indicating the backpack.

"A Shiva tactical nuke and several satchel charges." Shadow replied, while pulling the safety off the BR55. The marine whistled approvingly. Heading for the left side of the door again, Shadow secured the backpack and waited for Sanders to take the right side. She hit the door release, and they were greeted by a rush of cold air and the smell of energy. (Yes you can smell it.)

"Next stop, engines!" Sanders shouted happily, before instantly quieting down when he realized there were bound to be enemy forces around. In the mean time, Shadow had slipped behind a pillar and was planting a satchel charge on what looked like a power cable.

In the middle, the ship's massive deuterium-tritium fusion reactor was humming with live, casting a peculiar blue glow throughout the enormous cavernous room. Across the walls, cables were supplying power to various parts of the ship. Several walkways crossed the room from one side to the other. Shadow signalled the marine to stay put, and slipped across one of the walkways towards the main reactor. She planted charges on various sides of the reactor and slid back across the room to Sanders' position. She nodded once, and they walked along the walls of the room to the other side, keeping an eye out for stealthed elites. _So far so good…_

They made it to the other side undetected, entering the next room as fast as they could.

"This is fucking easy! They must be stupid!" Sanders said, grinning happily.

"It's too easy. Either it's a trap, or they don't know we broke out yet.." The moment Shadow finished the sentence, an alarm went off. "Well. They know it now."

Sanders hefted both guns, hero style, and shouted: "Come an get me!!" Shadow sighed, annoyed.

"If you want to go play hero, please do so on the opposite side of the ship. At least that'll give me a clear run to the hangar.

"You'd come' an get me, right?"

"No."

Sanders swallowed, and stood back again. Shadow nodded, and opened the door.

They passed several rooms and corridors, occasionally killing a sleeping grunt with a smack on the head. After what felt like ages, but were in fact mere minutes, they reached the doors to the hangar. Hitting the release, Shadow slipped inside first, while the marine hang back in case a patrol sneaked up on them. After a few seconds, the woman signalled all clear, and Sanders made run for the ship, the whole time thinking this was always when the bad guys showed up. So he ran, eyes closed, as fast as he could. When he jumped into the DX-Class Dropship, he realized he hadn't seen a single Covenant soldier. Not even a grunt. Shadow was sitting at the helm, busy flipping various controls.

"You know how to fly one of these?"

"If a grunt can do this, so can i. This button says _start_, this one says _land_. And this.." She waved at what looked like a joystick "looks like a joystick. Meaning it's probably meant to steer the ship. Shouldn't be too hard." She hit a button, and the doors closed. "Ah. And I also found the _close door_ one." She hit the _start _button, and the ship lifted off the floor. It lunched forward, tossing the standing marine against the viewscreen. Shadow grabbed the controls, and steadied the ship. Sanders climbed into a chair, strapping himself in as much as possible.

Shadow looked up from the main control board to see several grunts running through the hangar being shouted at by an elite. She grinned, waving at the elite, who instantly ordered the grunts to fire on the ship. When she pulled the controls backwards, the ship flew out of the hangar. Behind her, Sanders blew out a breath he'd been holding.

Shadow flew the ship in a relatively straight line directly for the planet, not slowing down when they hit the atmosphere. Sanders closed his eyes against the sight of the ground rushing towards them at an insane speed, praying. In the last second, Shadow hit the _land_ button, and the ship slowed down, landing on the ground. After a few seconds, Sanders opened his eyes, not believing that he was still alive.

XXX

**November 13, 2525,  
Covenant Research Facility,  
Planet Aranox.**

"You are probably the worst pilot in the fucking galaxy! It's true, women make terrible drivers!" the marine exclaimed, looking none too happy. Shadow grinned, jumping out of her seat and heading for the door. "Where did we land, anyway."

"In the main facility. They must've mistaken us for their own." She said, still grinning. The marine, on the other hand, looked horrified.

"We were supposed to get AWAY from them! Not heading into enemy central!"

"Look at it this way. You get to kill more aliens." Shadow said, making sure her battle rifle was loaded. This had a more encouraging effect, and the man grabbed one of his plasma rifles. Shadow hit the door release, and was amazed to find the hangar empty. "What's this? No welcoming party? They're getting sloppy." The jumped out, sprinting for a door on the right. She could hear the marine's footsteps behind her. When she reached the door, she stopped. Voices. Grunt voices, followed by the voice of an Elite shouting something. She signalled Sanders to find cover, while diving behind a crate. A few seconds later, the door opened. Sanders opened fire, while Shadow primed a grenade and tossed it into the group. It stuck onto the hand of a grunt. The grunt ran for the commanding Elite, screaming "Get it off!". The Elite noticed too late the grunt was sticked by a plasma grenade, and was instantly killed by the explosion. Three explosions caused by grenades one of the grunts was carrying took care of the rest of the group.

"You stole my kill!" Sanders shouted, looking at the mess. When the woman didn't reply, but instead ran into the corridor, he grunted and followed.

They kept up the rate, occasionally running into patrols. The patrols were easily taken out by tossing one or two grenades into the, which they'd stolen from sleeping grunts they'd killed. After about 23 corridors and rooms, they ended up in a room filled with terminals. Shadow headed for the one in the middle, and inserted a datachip. The chip had been programmed to automatically search and download specific files, and after a few seconds, the terminal bleeped once, indicating the start of the download. Satisfied that it didn't need her constant watching, she turned to Sanders, who was standing near the door.

"Once the download is finished, pull out the datachip and make your way to the hangar. I'll be along ASAP." She said, tossing Sanders two of the remaining satchel charges, and reloading her rifle. "Use these to blow up this room when you leave. Do NOT loose that datachip, or you'll have to explain to ONI why you lost a piece of very vital information." That was encouragement enough, and Sanders nodded, taking the charges and planting them on the center console. He turned around to ask Shadow where she was going, but found himself facing an empty room. She was already gone. Sanders turned back to watch the terminal, muttering to himself about women in general.

**TCB...**


	4. Saved

**A/N: Here it is. Chapter 4. With a nice and sweet cliffhanger. (grins) This chapter is the definate end of the first part of the story, the next one begins with 5, And will have a different kind of Chapter Titles. But the story will remaint he same.  
In 2 days, i'll know if i have passed my exams or not. I'm not even exited or nervous or anything, just having fun teasing everyone else who is terrified of it xD I'm a mean girl, I know.  
Betareader is still unavailable!**

**Jakster02:** I needed a character in it to lighten it up a bit add in some humor. It's worked out okay, i think. He's someone Dhadow can annoy, and she's not going to pass up an opportunity to do so. ;) I'm not going to kill him off. Yet.

**Skyler S:** You're correct regarding the language. But no, it's not a planet, and the word for Shadow is Prudii. (yes, that's a name too, i'm WELL aware of that fact. I know all Repcom books inside out. But Gayiyla is a Female AI, and I wasn't exactly planning to use names from the Republic Commando books either ;) That'd be.. awkward, considering this isn't a crossover with Star Wars.) Still, it's what i would've thought too. Very nice guess.

**Enough rambling, on to the next one. Oh, and i'm just now starting on 5, so it might or might not be a little longer then 3 days before I upload it.  
Read away! And don't forget to review!! **

* * *

Halo: A Fight Alone

Part 4

**November 13, 2525,  
****Covenant Research Facility,  
****Planet Aranox**

Slipping form shadow to shadow, the 16 year old Spartan called Shadow decided that things could've been worse. So far, she had remained undetected, slipping past several patrols without being noticed. She wondered how the Indomitable had fared against that incoming fleet that had arrived. Probably not too well, considering the ship had been poorly armed. She did a few quick calculations of the odds they had, knowing before she finished that there was no way they could've won. They had probably jumped into Slipspace, waiting outside the system. That had been the backup plan.

Hearing footsteps behind her, she slipped into a room. The room looked familiar. On the wall were two dark, scorched spots, and on the other wall were a dent and some blood. She rubbed the back of her head softly, knowing that if she rubbed too hard, it would open the wound. That had hurt. The black patches on the wall answered her question of why she wasn't disintegrated. Apparently the hunters had discharged their cannons at the wall, no doubt having been ordered not to kill her. She stared at the black wall for a few seconds, realizing that could've been her. Setting aside the thought, she listened to the sounds in the hallway. The footsteps were gone, so she slid back out of the room.

Shadow wasn't walking around randomly. She was headed for the facility's secondary generator. The primary generator was bound to be heavily guarded, but the secondary one served the purpose well enough. The plan was to download all files regarding this new weapon, escape and detonate the Shiva tactical nuke, destroying the facility.

After about ten minutes, she finally reached the secondary reactor. Oddly enough, it wasn't guarded. Shrugging, Shadow walked in. She walked over to the wall, opened up the ventilation roster, placed the nuke inside, and put the cover back on. Satisfied that the bomb was invisible, she headed back. By now the data transfer should be completed.

She was almost at the hangar when she heard the explosion. Following it was someone screaming "GANGWAY!!" Private Jason Sanders shot past her, looking very much like he was running for his life. Lifting an eyebrow, Shadow turned to look wide-eyed what had him running. An entire battalion of grunts and jackals rounded the corner, followed by several elites sporting plasma swords. She spun around and ran at top speed after Sanders, running past him after a few seconds. The marine yelped in shock when she shot past him, stopping to stare and gape at her. Then he remembered the army of Covenant behind him, and ran off again, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Shadow shot into the hangar at top speed, nearly slamming into the dropship. In one fluent motion, she grabbed Sanders by his collar when he passed by, and tossed him into the second seat, jumping into the ship after him. The marine was still screaming, not realizing he was already inside the ship. Shadow hit him on the back of his head, shutting him up, and dropped into the pilot's seat hitting the door controls.

Outside, all the Covenant were firing at the dropship. Shadow hit _start_ and flew the ship straight up in the air. Dodging several shots among which at least 8 fuel rod cannons, she maneuvered the ship through the atmosphere. She sighed when the dropship broke through the atmosphere. Relieve was short-lived, as she saw the massive ship _Idle Worship_ speeding towards her, intend on capturing or destroying the ship. Shadow yelped, and broke right, hard, throwing Sanders out of his seat. The marine climbed back into his seat, this time strapping himself in with a prayer. Shadow swore when she nearly hit the huge Assault Carrier. Shooting past it, she sped the sip towards an asteroid field in the hopes of hiding there. She reached into her pocket and tossed Sanders two remote detonators. He caught them, looking at the word _detonate_.

"Just hit the damn button!" Shadow cried out when the marine continued staring at the detonators. After a small while, he grinned and hit both at the same time.

A massive explosion shook the small ship, followed by a tense silence. Then, debris started shooting past the ship. Shadow swung the ship behind a large asteroid, waiting for the shockwave. After a few silent seconds, the asteroid they hid behind started shaking and a large flash of light blinded both humans in the small ship. And suddenly, it was over.

"What just happened?" Sanders asked, rapidly blinking to clear his vision.

"Both the Shiva nuke and the satchel charges detonated, destroying the ship and the facility. " Shadow said, looking outside. Her vision had already returned, and she was scanning the space for any surviving ships. She wondered where that fleet had gone. Such a massive fleet didn't just disappear all of a sudden. That wasn't their biggest concern though.

"How are we going to get back home?" Sanders asked, tossing the detonator into a corner.

"The _Indomitable_ should be on the edge of the system." Shadow said.

"Well, let's go there then!" The marine exclaimed.

"That's about 0.000288 lightyears from here." Sanders was looking at her, confused. "2.73 billion kilometers" Sanders gaped. "This ship's maximum speed is 1100 KPH. So that's about… 1113.75 million days." Sanders' jaw dropped further."311643 years." The marine looked ready to kill himself.

"Th... thr... three hundred eleven thousand six hundred and forty three YEARS?!" He managed to stutter.

"But we could always call in the _Indomitable_ to come get us." Shadow said with a grin. The marine's shock was highly amusing. "If they make a jump, they should be here in a few seconds." At this point, Sanders looked about ready to throw Shadow out the airlock.

Shadow keyed in the _Indomitable_'s frequency.

"Shadow-012 calling _Indomitable._ Repeat, calling _Indomitable._"

"_Indomitable,_ receiving." A smooth voice replied. "This is UNSC AI Gayiyla. What can I do for you?"

"Requesting extraction, transmitting coordinates." Shadow send out a short datatransmision including their current coordinates.

"Coordinates received. Negative on extraction, Hostile fleet assumed to be in position nearby." Gayiyla replied, sounding like she was bored.

"That fleet is long gone. Current position unknown, but it isn't here." Shadow tapped some words on the main console.

"Copy that. Hang tight, we're on our way."

"We're not going anywhere anytime soon. 012 out." Shadow said, cutting the connection. Sanders was still gaping at her. "Pick up your jaw before you attract god knows what kind of bugs."

"Bugs. In space?"

"Yah. Space-bugs." Shadow said, snickering.

"More aliens. Great." Sanders replied dryly as he got up from his seat to lean against the wall. "So. Now that we just blew up half a planet and a shitload a Covvies, you tell me just what the hell you are? Because I had a kid 'bout your age, and he played with handheld computers, not guns and nukes. And why the hell ya got a number instead of a last name? And what was that place we were in just now? Cuz it wasn't an encampment!"

Shadow sighed. The marine had helped, so he deserved an explanation. "I'm special forces. Black ops."

"One of ONI's spooks?"

"Not directly. And that was a covenant research facility."

"Research? Those bastards usually imitate, not invent. Whatever were they doing down there for ONI want it blown to pieces? Don't get me wrong, best covenant is a dead one, but aint that a bit overkill? What were they building down there?"

"A new type of weapon."

"What kind?"

"Beats me. Now hand me that datachip."

Sanders reached into his pocked, and pulled out the small datachip. Tossing it over to Shadow, he looked outside. Just outside the asteroid field a Slipspace rupture appeared and the _Indomitable_ shot out. Sanders jumped, cheering for the sight of a friendly ship. The com system bleeped. Shadow hit it.

"012, receiving. That you _Indomitable?_"

"It's us. You're going to have to fly that Spirit into one of the pelican bays. Can you do that?" Gayiyla's voice came over the comm.

"Are you nuts?! She can hardly keep this thing in the air!" Sanders yelled.

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right. I was kinda hoping you could help me out with this." Shadow replied dryly.

"I am _not_ 'nuts'. Who is that?" Gayiyla said, sounding mildly annoyed. Shadow mouthed _AI_ at Sanders, and the marine mouthed _Oh_ back.

"Private J. Sanders ma'am. Please PLEASE fly this ship. I didn't stay alive this long to be killed by a woman's driving. No offence."

"None taken." Gayiyla replied, amused "Very well." The console lighted up, and the ship started moving towards the frigate. Sanders noted Shadow glaring at him, and he just shrugged.

The ship landed in the pelican bay with a soft thud, and Shadow climbed out. The bay was fairly empty, with only 5 pelicans currently inside. The rest was just not on board. Shadow figured that was a good thing, or they would've had to find another way to get in the ship. When she got out, Captain Sinns was waiting for her. He looked completely blank, no expression whatsoever. Sanders got out as well, saluting to the captain. Sinns returned the salute, and turned to Shadow. She saluted as well, and then tossed Sinns the datachip.

"Sir. Mission accomplished. Here ya go sir. Everything that we got out of the computers. Tell Gayiyla to have fun cracking it."

"I sure will." Gayiyla popped up on a holopad near the wall, eager to get started on the data. Sinns inserted the chip into the terminal, uploading the data. Gayiyla grinned, and got to work. "I'll brief you in 10 minutes."

"Sir, permission to get something to eat?" Shadow asked.

"Yes, off course. I believe they're serving hamburgers and salads today." The captain said. Shadow nodded and left.

XXX

**November 13, 2525,  
****UNSC Frigate **_**Indomitable,  
**_**Slipspace.**

Inside the frigate's main computer, Gayiyla was busy sorting through the files from the covenant facility. She had only translated a small part of it, but what she'd found out so far wasn't good. The Covenant were indeed developing a weapon, but of what type, she wasn't sure yet.

She pulled half of her attention away of the translation to check on the ship's status. The frigate was flying through Slipspace, heading towards random coordinates, currently those were somewhere in the middle of no-where. Since a few weeks, they had the orders to never jump directly towards human worlds, lest they be followed by Covenant ships.

Even though Gayiyla was certain they weren't being followed, she'd send the ship to a random location in space. They'd arrive there in little under 10 days. Most of the ship's crew was in cryostasis, with the exception of those currently on active duty. A security alert caught her attention, and she went to check out the problem.

It turned out to be something in one of the ship's Cryo-bays. When she popped up on the holopad, she spotted what looked like one of the engineers trapped on the floor with an M6C to his head. Holding the gun was the young Spartan, Shadow-012. Gayiyla gave the equivalent of a sigh.

"What's going on here?" The tiny figure crossed her arms. "And make it fast."

"I don't know!" The poor engineer cried out.

"Shut up. I clearly stated I was NOT going into one of these things. They chose to ignore that. Bad mistake." Shadow said. Gayiyla had read in Shadow's file that the woman didn't care much for Cryostasis, and preferred to spend the time of the journey the old fashioned way: sleeping, eating, exercising and working. She shook her head, sighing.

"Don't bother trying to put her in one of the pods." She turned to Shadow. "Release him." To her surprise, the young woman obeyed, getting up and holstering her sidearm. Shadow grabbed the engineer by his collar, and hauled him to his feet. The man yelped, and ran off. Shadow snickered. "You really have a way with people, don't you? Corridor C-5, room 19. As of now your quarters. And try not to attack or scare anyone else." Shadow was still snickering. Gayiyla sighed. Damn she was frustrating!

"I'll try. No promises though. How's the translation going?"

"Not, while I'm too busy stopping you form killing the crew." Gayiyla said. Shadow seemed to spot the AI's bad mood, because she apologized and left.

She went back to her translations. By now she was almost finished. She checked the ships systems again while she waited, but nothing else was happening. When she turned her attention back, the translation was done. She opened it up, and read through it. After a few nanoseconds, she found what she was looking for. They were indeed building a weapon, and now she knew what kind.

It wasn't a bomb or a gun.

It was something far worse.

A virus.

**Tbc...  
Muahahahahahahahahahaha! **


	5. This is not my day!

**A/N: I PASSED MY EXAMS!! W00000000t :D  
anyway, here's chapter 5. i don't really have much to say besides the fact that it seems i'm losing reviewers :'(**

**Jakster02:** I just feel that every important character should have a personality. ;)

**And D.Doberman, i put in the ODST's this time! :)**

* * *

Halo: A Fight Alone  
Part 5

**November 13, 2525,  
****UNSC Frigate **_**Indomitable,  
**_**Slipspace**

Everyone who had some importance to the mission had gathered in the briefing room. At the moment, 6 people occupied the room: Captain Aren Sinns, Marine Sergeant Alice Lyran, ODST Sergeant Jack Dallas, Spartan Shadow-012, Private Jason Sanders and the ship's AI Gayiyla. The AI was currently the one talking. Shadow was leaning against the bulkhead next to the window. She glanced at Sanders and had to bit her lip to hold back her laughter. The marine was making weird faces at the AI. The AI obviously didn't see it, but Sergeant Dallas did. The marine sergeant hit the Private on the head, and Sanders apologized. Captain Sinns was listening patiently to Gayiyla's explanation, looking concerned. Sergeant Lyran was studying her nails. Gayiyla had been talking for nearly an hour now, mostly about everything that was on the datachip. Shadow sighed. This was taking too long.

"Get to the point. What kind of weapon was it?" Shadow said.

Gayiyla spun around, annoyed at the interruption. "I was getting to that."

"Yah, for an hour already." Everybody looked up.

"Very well. It's a virus, designed to target a few specific strings in our genetics. They were working on making it airborne, but so far it has to be injected."

"A bio weapon?!" Dallas cried out, spitting his coffee onto the table. Everyone was shocked. Biological warfare was ancient history, and no-one was looking forward to another chemical war.

"Yes. From what I've gathered, the weapon was ready to be tested, all they needed were a few human subjects." Gayiyla said.

"All this was just a set up to get some test subjects. That's why it was all so easy, and we fell right into their trap. Wait a second, Sanders and I were in that prison for a while. Have we been infected?" Shadow said, looking not at all as worried as she should be. Sanders choked on his coffee and cried "_WHAT?!_"

"I'll have to do a thorough blood analysis of both of you, but there's a good chance you are."

"Great. Any known symptoms I should be watching for? Fever? Dry throat? Blue skin?" Shadow said, irritated. Just her luck, to get infected with a deadly virus on her first mission. Curse whatever god was out there, this was unfair. Shadow wasn't religious, but she still muttered "god hates me."

"Loss of bone integrity, Loss of eyesight and hearing, loss of blood coagulation ability, and in the end death." Gayiyla said, almost sounding worried.

"Is there an antidote?" Captain Sinns asked the AI.

"If you made a virus to kill your enemies, would you make an antidote?" Sergeant Lyran interjected. The whole room fell into silence, thinking about what was just said. Shadow got up with the intention of heading down to the medical bay and was joined by Sanders halfway across the room. The marine didn't look happy at all.

Behind them, Gayiyla shouted that she wasn't done yet, but both of them were already out of range.

XXX

They made it to the medical bay in silence, Shadow thinking and Sanders worrying. It seemed that Gayiyla had already informed the medics of their arrival, because they were waiting by the door. Shadow liked the medbay about as much as she liked the Cryo-bay, which was not at all. She'd seen enough medical facilities for a long, long time. She grunted.

"Just get this over with." She presented the medic her arm, and he drew a needle. Shadow eyed the needle warily, not having fond memories of anything medical related. She'd seen some of her best friends die in a medical facility not long ago. The medic drew some blood from her, 4 tubes to be exact, then moved on to the marine who looked ready to bolt out of the door. Sanders looked just as happy to be in the medbay as Shadow.

After what seemed like a few hours but were in fact minutes, Gayiyla popped up on the holopad, looking slightly confused.

"Better get back to the briefing room. Everyone'll want to hear this." She vanished again Shadow shrugged, and headed towards the mentioned room, closely followed by a confused and worried marine.

XXX

Back in the briefing room Gayiyla popped up again. She startled everyone in the room, and both Sergeants broke off their argument about which movie was better. Captain Sinns looked up from the file he was reading. Shadow and Sanders walked in as well.

"Well, I got the results."

"By all means, don't keep us waiting." Sinns said.

Gayiyla ignored him and turned to the two who had walked in last. Shadow raised her eyebrows and asked "Well?"

"Private Sanders is clean" Sanders cheered at that. "But your blood shows traces of the virus. However it seems to be inactive."

"I'm just guessing now. That's not supposed to be happening?" Shadow said, annoyed. Yep. Someone up there really did hate her.

"Normally, no. However, this virus targets specific human DNA strings. Most of those in your DNA have been altered."

"What does that mean?" Sanders interjected, but he got no response. Everybody just ignored him.

"Well, I'll be sure to send my thanks back to the scientists at Reach. So I'm infected but It's not going to have an effect?" Shadow shrugged. If she wasn't going to die and the thing was just inactive anyway, it couldn't cause any harm. "Sounds fine to me. What else did you dig up?"

"The place you just blew up wasn't the true facility."

"I figured as much, considering it was too lightly defended to be of any importance. My bet is that it was just an outpost. Still, lots of dead covenant, so that's a plus. Whatever happened to that fleet?" Shadow said.

"It never showed up on our scans. If you hadn't said it wasn't there, we would've believed it to be in orbit around the planet. Most likely it was a sensor ghost, meant to scare us away and leave any planet fall troops on their own. " Gayiyla said. "However, I've found out from their files where the real facility is. And it's bound to be heavily guarded."

"My boys are anxious to fight, you're not leaving us up here again." Dallas said. "We missed out one battle. This one's ours."

"No. This is still…" Gayiyla never got to finish.

"I'm going to need backup on this one." Shadow said. Not letting those men fight was just cruel, and she really could use the help.

"Great! We'll get geared up." Dallas ran off after saluting the captain. Lyran laughed and walked off as well. Gayiyla didn't look too happy with it, but she couldn't do anything more except glare. She crossed her arms and vanished.

XXX

Shadow was throwing several magazines of ammunition in her backpack when she felt someone watching her. She spun around pointing her M6C at whoever it was, only to find it being the AI. She holstered her pistol and sighed, going back to what she was doing.

"Yes?" Shadow said while she pulled on her black gloves. Whatever the hell did that AI want now?

"This is a mistake." The petite woman said.

"Good call Sherlock. Anything else?" Shadow put a combat knife in each of her boots after securing the ones in her sleeves.

"Let me go with you." Gayiyla said. Shadow turned around, eyebrows raised.

"I may not be a techfreak, but isn't that kind of, oh, I don't know, impossible?" Shadow said amused. Was the AI having a glitch or something? Maybe a good kick to the holopad would solve it. The AI laughed and Shadow just shrugged. Probably just a bad glitch.

"They've been working on a way to transport AI's. So far the best way is using a portable datacore and a wrist bound holopanel.." Shadow frowned. That sounded like a lot of extra ballast. "Which is what you're going to carry." Gayiyla said.

"Hold on a second. I am not going into a Covenant base carrying 50 kilos of equipment. That will slow me down way too much."

"You don't get to say anything about this. You're bringing me along. End of discussion."

"Fuck you, no way. Find someone else."

XXX

Shadow grunted. This was insane. She was standing in the HEV bay and currently had a backpack larger then her own strapped on her back and a 40 cm wide holo-transmitter around her left arm. When she spotted Sanders laughing at her, she swore and presented him her middle finger. This only made the marine laugh more. Two technicicans were currently uploading Gayiyla to the datacore. Sergeants Lyran and Dallas walked in, followed by the captain. Lyran stopped for a second to watch what Shadow was considering to call the circus dress-up. The sergeant tried her best not to laugh but failed utterly. Dallas just grinned, and Sinns simply kept walking with a near-to-straight face. After them followed the 10 ODST's closely followed by the 30 marines. They were all fully geared up.

"Okay, give it a try." The technician said. Almost instantly Gayiyla popped up on her arm. The AI looked like she was saying something, but no sound was heard. Shadow grinned.

"Let's leave it like this!" Dallas said, and the technician laughed. The AI gave the sergeant her most deadly look, and the man just shrugged, grinning.

The technician touched a few buttons. "- YOU HEAR ME?!" Gayiyla's voice came up, loudly.

"Crap. I was enjoying the silence." Shadow said, sighing with annoyance. "Does she come with an off-switch? I'm not looking forward to her blowing my cover."

"No." Gayiyla said immediately. Shadow rolled her eyes.

"Fucking brilliant. You don't speak unless I tell you, you don't do anything unless I tell you. Got it?" Gayiyla nodded. "Good. Okay, you want to come along, you got a plan?"

The AI nodded. "The ODST's go first in the HEV's." The Helljumpers cheered. "You're going to lead them." Sergeant Dallas didn't feel much for that part.

"They're my boys! I lead them!"

"Not this time sergeant. 012 has tactical command on this mission." Dallas made a sound between a snort and a curse. He turned to his men.

"Sorry boys, you gotta listen to the freak today." Shadow rolled her eyes at the same time Gayiyla did. The ODST's had a reputation to be rude, but with their skills, they had a right to be. The men grunted and climbed into the pod. Shadow did the same, without the grunting. Dallas hit each pod with his fist, securing the 'doors' on the teardrop shaped pods. Once everyone was secured, he climbed into his own.

Shadow watched her pod come to life when Gayiyla interfaced with it. She had been fully briefed and trained in the use of the HEV's, but that didn't mean she liked it. A series of clicks was heard, then a loud bang. Shadow could feel that she was in freefall now, images of the ground below showing up on her screen. She thought back on what CPO Mendez had told them when he had first taught them about and how to use the droppods.

_The Human Entry Vehicle or HEV is a tear-drop shaped pod made of Titanium-A, Lead Foil, and a ceramic skin.__ The skin burns away during atmospheric reentry, protecting the rest of the pod and its occupant from the worst of the considerable heat. The Lead Foil is there to keep the Armor from ripping away and to replace the ceramic skin once it burns away. However, even with this ablation it is not unknown for passengers to be killed when tolerances are exceeded. They are considered extremely risky, as the person riding the HEV can die either from the intense heat on re-entry, the extreme G-forces, the force of hitting a terrestrial target, or, the parachute may not open to slow the HEV down. This is the main reason why only the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers and you are able to use the pods. Along with the aforementioned parachute, the HEV also carries weapons, ammunition, food, a radio, and a cubicle for shelter in case you are ever dropped off target or need to fight immediately when they hit the ground. The officer is always the first to drop, and this command pod is equipped with high-powered imaging gear and possibly a Class C military AI or better. _

Even though she had used droppods before in training, this was the first time she understood why the ODST's had the name Helljumpers. The drop through the atmosphere felt like a drop into hell, and she realized she could die any minute, be it from failure or an AA round. She noticed Gayiyla's avatar ion the screen, and the AI looked none too happy. Shadow decided to talk to her.

"What's wrong?" Had the AI been real, she would've been as pale as a ghost. Something was wrong, shadow could feel it now. "Gayiyla, what is it?"

"The main parachute.. we don't have one!" The AI shouted. Shadow stared at her.

"Are you playing a joke? It's not funny." On her screen, a diagnostic appeared. The AI was right. The pod didn't have a main parachute, only a backup that wouldn't work all that well. Shadow swore and opened up a channel to sergeant Dallas. "Sergeant, I seem to be having a little problem. Someone stole my parachute." Silence was heard, followed by a series of curses. "I'm transferring Gayiyla to your pod, take good care of her or ONI will have my ass. I've got a crazy plan and I doubt it'll work, but my pod is heading directly for the lake. I'm going to jump out shortly before hitting the water. Proceed with the mission as planned, if I survive I'll catch up. 012 Out." Dallas would carry the datacrystal that housed Gayiyla with him. Shadow sighed. _Here goes nothing…_

The chance she would succeed was slim, and the chance she would survive the crash was even smaller, but she wasn't going to sit back and die. She added this plan to the top 3 of crazy ideas, and turned around. She used her knife to open up the case for the backup chute and pulled it out. The chute wasn't powerful enough to slow down the pod, but in theory it would be large enough for a human. It didn't have to work perfectly, just slow her down enough to drop into the water at a little slower then terminal velocity. She counted to ten, kicked open the door and jumped out.

The air hitting her face was sharp and she had trouble seeing. When she looked down she could see th elake she was headed for. Breathing also immensely hard. The planet seemed to have very thin air. She wrapped the ropes of the chute around her hands and threw it up. The shock from being instantly slower down wasn't as hard as she had expected it to be, and it seemed to be working. The water was still rushing towards her at immense speed, but at least now she had a chance.

Once she was about 50 meters above the water, she breathed out deeply. Holding her breath might cause her lungs to explode from the shock. She closed her eyes and let go of the chute. She straightened herself to lessen the impact, and hit the water at a 100 kilometers per hour.

TBC…


	6. Normal days don't exist

**A/N: Two week sof nothing but rain, mud, bugs and rain. my vacation in short. Even my paper was soaked, thus the slow update. Sorry for that. Now, I am also posting this story ont he clanforum, so i'm hoping to get some reviews there. **

**Jakster02:** i'm glad you're still reading this :)

* * *

**November 13, 2525  
****Unknown Planet  
****Serado System**

The crystal blue lake glittered in the sun, its surface as peaceful as ever. Underneath the surface, Shadow-012 regained consciousness. Shaking her head against the pressure and the aftereffects from the impact, she looked up to estimate the distance to the surface. _Great. That's probably more then a kilometer._ That posed a problem, as she was out of breath. She'd breathed out heavily shortly before the impact to reduce the pressure on her lungs, preventing collapse, but it also gave her less time. She needed to get up there. Fast. So Shadow kicked her legs and swam up as fast as she could.

After a few scary seconds, Shadow broke the surface with a gasp for air. Listening carefully, she scanned the air for covenant patrols. The sound of automatic gunfire could be heard from the north, which meant that at least a few of the Helljumpers had made it down in one piece. Shadow-012 checked that she still had her weapons, and set out for a swim to the north side of the lake. She had made it halfway through when a low rumble came in from the south.

One of the augmentations the SPARTAN-II's had been given was enhanced eyesight, which enabled them to see further and clearer then any other human, as well as the ability to see clearly at night. And so, for the tenth time in the past 3 days, Shadow gave her silent thanks to the scientists at Reach as she spotted the source of the sound. A patrol consisting of a Covenant Spirit and its escort of 5 Banshees was approaching at top speed from the south and headed directly towards her position. She swore, took a deep breath and dived back under water. The Covenant had undoubtedly seen her HEV drop like a rock, as well as its crash into the water. No doubt they were here looking for survivors. As she made her way to the shore at top speed, she saw the shadows of the ships pass. Up ahead, they made a turn and did another flyby. Apparently satisfied that there was nobody left alive the ships made one last turn and headed in the direction of the gunfire.

Once she could no longer feel the vibration of the ships nor see their shadows, Shadow had just about reached the beach. She climbed up, shook the water out of her hair and checked her gear. The BR55 was still intact, as was her M6D sidearm, since both were classified as waterproof. She hoped the large backpack carrying all the tech was waterproof as well. Shadow checked the ammunition clip in the Battle Rifle, and set out to help the Helljumpers deal with the Covenant.

XXX

The area just north of the lake was covered with rocks and craters, some the size of buildings. Thousand of years ago a meteor storm had passed the planet and assaulted its surface with rainstorms of rocks. Now, 12 thousand years later, hidden among them were the ODST's who were more then happy to put the rocks to good use for cover. They were pinned down by a large group of Covenant, consisting of Grunts, Jackals and Elites commanding them.

Sergeant Dallas swore as he ejected the spend ammo clip out of his Battlerifle and slapped in a fresh one. This wasn't going well. His leg hurt, the Covenant wouldn't stop shooting, and the sound of those dropships approaching didn't make things any better. On top of that, 3 of his men were injured and they were running out of ammo. He fired a few burst into the head of a stupid elite, heard his rifle say click, and swore. Around him, the sound of gunfire stopped. Some of the elites shouted something, but he had no idea what they were saying, though he had a good idea what they meant. The moment he saw the first group of grunts approaching, plasmaguns on overload, he was certain.

"Fall back! Fall back to the mountain! Move!" He shouted to his men, and they made a run for it, closely followed by Covenant troops and plasma shots. The biggest problem with their escape plan was that to get to the mountains, they'd have to cross a kilometer wide open field. Dallas turned to shoot whoever was behind him, and found himself face to face with an Elite. Startled, he raised his BR55 and pulled the trigger. _Click._ "Fuck." The Elite roared in anger as 36 .374 Caliber rounds suddenly pierced his shield and cut straight through his torso.

"Pick on someone your own size!" The elite dropped to the ground, and Dallas found himself staring at the business-end of a BR55. Dallas stared in surprise for a few seconds at the woman holding the rifle, then nodded in thanks.

Shadow-012 tossed him 2 fresh clips of ammunition, primed a grenade and threw it right into a pack of grunts. She grinned when it started raining grunt pieces, then fired a couple of round into a group of jackals who had their unprotected backs turned towards her.

With a couple of well placed grenades and shots, they made short work of the remaining forces. Dallas handed Shadow the AI's datachip, and soon after, Gayiyla popped up on the portable holopanel. She immediately called in, and after a few minutes the sound of Pelican dropships on approach was heard. In the mean time, Shadow explained to Gayiyla and Dallas what had happened, and the AI went over the logs from the HEV.

"This just shouldn't be possible."

"Tell that to my completely soaked gear. It happened alright. _How_ is something I'm more interested in." Shadow said.

"All drop pods were thoroughly inspected only 10 minutes prior to launch. I went over the report myself twice; nothing was out of the ordinary!" The AI said confused.

"Yeah, I noticed. Next time, I'll hitch a ride from the Pelicans. So, the parachute can not have miraculously disappeared. Who took it out?"

"I have no idea. I can't imagine anyone who would've done such a thing!" The AI looked upset. The three pelicans landed, and Sergeant Lyran jumped out, followed by the 30 marines. She made her way over to them and joined the conversation. She was obviously aware of what had happened.

"Just another setback in a big row. First, the covenant know we're near that planet while they shouldn't be able to, then they know I'm down there, then the mysterious fleet, and now this sabotage." Shadow was silent for a few seconds. "I don't like this. And I like the idea that's entering my mind now even less." From the looks of it, Dallas and Gayiyla had thought of the same thing.

"We've got a traitor." Dallas said, angry. "It'd better not be one of my boys, or they'll be going back to earth in pieces."

"But who? And who are they working for? Nobody would be stupid enough to work for the covenant!" Gayiyla said.

"You have to remember, the covenant aren't the only ones who have a general dislike of the UNSC. There's a large group of people out there who rebel against us." Lyran said. "It's highly possible they're behind all this. If so, we need to find out who before they get us killed. We also need to find out what they know." She turned to Shadow. "If they know who and what you are, then we have to take them out before they can get into contact with whoever they work for. Gayiyla, find out who have accessed any of the classified files, and then give me a list of everyone with access to our navcomputer, communications and the HEV pods. Also, I want the records of everyone with a history, as well as people who have family or friends with the rebels." Alice Lyran was 46 years old, and thus had plenty of experience with these rebels. She knew how they thought because she'd fought them more times then she was willing to count.

"Yes ma'am. The only ones who have access to all of those areas are the bridge crew and the officers. Everyone on this ship has been personally selected for this mission, and thoroughly checked. The data logs show several people who have accessed the files, amongst those were captain Sinns, both sergeants, Shadow-012, private Sanders and Miss Sullers. The last two tried several times, though unsuccessful. However, Miss Sullers did her best to hide her attempts, while private Sanders made no attempt to hide it. He has asked me several questions as well."

"Sanders is just curious. I can understand why, he's lost everyone he knew on harvest to the covenant. I don't doubt he's eager to find out what happened after his capture. The Captain, Dallas and I all have access to most files, and I honestly can't imagine a Spartan working for the rebels." Lyran said. Shadow snorted in amusement. "Miss Sullers worries me. She's a civilian, a scientist." Again, shadow snorted.

"Not all civilian scientists are evil."

"Perhaps. Indeed, some work for the UNSC and have made several contributions to the cause."

"Big ones." Shadow muttered. "I owe what I am to one."

"We've all been briefed, thank you. And not everything Dr. Halsey has done has been right and honorable." Shadow said something not so very nice directed at Lyran. "But we're getting off topic." Lyran quickly said after noticing both Gayiyla's and Shadow's deadly looks. That may not have been the smartest comment to make.

"We'll get back on this later. I've done a check on Miss Sullers. She was a late addition to the crew, selected for her ability to talk fast. Which is the most stupid thing I have ever heard." Gayiyla said, tapping her foot. "We may want to warn the captain about this."

"Do it. Then put an eye in Miss Sullers workstation. I want to know every time she looks at anything, and I want to know everything she looks at." Lyran said. Dallas was looking grateful that they had a suspect and it wasn't one of his men.

The AI disappeared, going to work. A few seconds later, she popped up again. Lyran was about to say something when she noticed the AI's horrified look.

"What's wrong?" Shadow asked.

"We're too late."

XXX

**November 13, 2525  
****Orbit ****Unknown Planet  
****Serado System**

Aren Sinns was asleep when it happened. He'd decided that for the moment there was nothing he could do, he'd left lieutenant Farrow in charge of the bridge, and went to catch up with the sleep he'd missed. He'd been asleep for about an hour when he was violently woken by the man he had left in charge.

Lieutenant Adam Farrow had charged into his room, shook him awake, and pressed a gun in his hands. The man had a nasty wound on his face and looked angry. When Sinns had asked what was wrong, the man had taken a deep breath, and explained what had happened.

"Sir. Ensign Cast discovered an anomaly in the ships communication system. It shouldn't have been there, so she send me a report. The problem seemed to be emanating from Sullers' workstation, so I asked her about it. Before I knew it, she'd shot me, then took the crew hostage. I sneaked off when she wasn't looking, she thought I was dead. But it was just a glancing shot sir, so I'm fine. I don't know what happened to everyone else. Sir, she's with the rebels. She's planning to turn us all over to the covenant sir. You, the crew, the marines, the Helljumpers, our AI and the agent we're transporting around, in the hope they'll leave them alone."

Now, Sinns and Farrow were working to come up with a plan to stop the traitor. The trap the covenant had set, the ghost fleet, the informed ground forces, the sabotage, the unauthorized access to several of the classified files as well as Gayiyla's programming… it all made sense now. He realized they'd have to find a way to alert the people on the ground before they ran right into the trap.

In front of him, the door slammed shut. He turned to Farrow, who raised his eyebrows in surprise. Then, the other door slammed shut as well. A holographic version of Sullers popped up on the holopanel.

"Surrender now captain, and I'll let you live. I have complete control of the ship now that that AI witch is gone, and that includes life-support. Surrender or I will slowly drain the atmosphere from that compartment. " The smaller version of Dana said

"I'd rather die here than be given to the covenant as a gift. You have no idea what you're doing, what you're going to cause."

"The people down there will be captured soon enough now. Maybe then we'll find out what you've been hiding. Tell me captain. Who is Shadow really? Because she's not what everyone says she is, I've seen it. And her record has more security locks then ONI's mainframe." Dana looked amused when she said that.

"Go to hell."

"Now now captain. That's not an answer. If you won't tell me, I'm sure the covenant will get it out of her eventually."

"Don't count on it, she's tough. You're making a big mistake Dana, the truth of this is far more dangerous and frightening then you realize." Sinns pointed his M6D at the panel and pulled the trigger. He'd heard enough. The panel sparked and died.

"Blessed silence. Who the hell does she think she is?!" Farrow said.

"A threat. Lets get out of here first, as I have no doubt she is willing to kill us both to get her way, and we need to get a warning out." Sinns was interrupted halfway through as another holopanel lit up on the far side of the corridor. "Not again." Instead of Sullers, it was the glowing form of Gayiyla that popped up.

"Captain! Be wary of Miss Sullers, she's..." Gayiyla said, only to be interrupted.

"A traitor. We know. She's a rebel and has taken the bridge crew hostage. She plans to turn us over to the covenant in the hopes that they'll be left alone from now on. Be careful down there, you're walking into a trap. Wait a minute. How did you know she was a traitor?" Sinns said.

"Piecing together the events and crosschecking permissions and logs."

"Can you get access to the navcomputer? We can't let it fall into covenant hands." Sinns said, thinking.

"Accessing... I'm in."

"Wipe it, then lock all access to the ships controls to my personal code and get out the system. She's set out several traps to catch you, and letting you fall into enemy hands is simply unacceptable.

"Aye aye captain. Be careful." With that, the AI vanished and the panel went dead. Sinns thought for a few seconds, and then tapped a command into the doorcontrol and the door slit open. He and Farrow ran through and headed for the armory. There was no way Sinns was going to let that woman give his ship to those alien bastards! They'd just have to find out a way to stop her.

XXX

She was furious. How had that AI been able to get in and out of the system without being trapped! She'd carefully set up several traps to catch it. The covenant were very eager to get their hands on a human AI, and she figured it would guarantee success for the plan they'd carefully set up. If they could hand these people over to the covenant, then perhaps the aliens would leave them all alone. All, they wanted nothing to do with the UNSC. But first things first. She keyed in an all-open frequency on the comm. system and was about to transmit when the whole thing went dead. Dana looked at it, surprised. That wasn't supposed to happen.

Damn that AI! It must've cut off all access to the ships systems. It didn't matter. The ship was on a direct course for the planet, they'd be breaking the atmosphere in the next half hour. Even if they crashed, the covenant would be able to salvage the ships navdatabase. She checked the database…

"NO! That bitch! She wiped it! I hope the covenant knows how to interrogate AI's or I'll be happy to show them!" She cried, angry. On the screen she could still monitor the progress down on the planet, and what she saw made her happy. The UNSC forces were trapped. This would be over soon enough, and then she'd have her answers and revenge.

Life was sweet.


	7. Here we go again

**A/N: Well, this one is a bit longer then the previous ones. Atleast, it was in Word. -Shrugs- Well, can't be bad thing, can it? Now, this one has a reference to the book Fall of Reach. I suggest you read the book (Not just for the story, it's one of the best books i have ever read.), but it isn't required. **

**Hawki and Dorvalla both guessed it right, Gayiyla is Mandalorian for Everywhere. Now, Hawki send me the answer in a review at about the same time Dorvalla told me over xfire. (Though he knew where to look, as he knows me. I don't make it that much of a secret that I speak that language, and the whole clan knows it.) So to both of you: let me know what kind of character you want in the story. DON'T ask for any of the original characters, as my answer is NO. I am TERRIBLE at writing about original characters, for some reason, they always end up OOC when I do. I know **

**I already replied to Hawki via a reply to the review, but i'm doing an extra reply here too. **

**Hawki: **You know your stuff. It's nice to see I was not the only one who read the books. As for the situation. Well, ONI is basically the future version of the CIA, and they don't always explain their reasons either ;). It'll all become clear later on.

**Dorvalla:** Well, not much I can say that I haven't already said. Go kick Carlo in his you know where, he still owes me a review :p. That was 5 chapters ago. xD. Well, I don't know if you'll read this here or back on the forum first, so.. why don't you drop a review on both sites? :p Reviews make me happy -innocent grin-. :D

* * *

**November 13, 2525  
****Unknown Planet  
****Serado System**

The mountains turned out to be one large inactive volcano honeycombed with old magma tubes and caverns. Hidden inside was a medium sized group of 30 marines and 10 ODST's who'd set up temporary headquarters in one of the largest caverns. Several hindered years ago, the volcano had violently erupted. The large force of the eruption had blown a large chunk off of the base of the mountain, leaving a gaping hole. The marines had instantly dubbed this hole _'the mouth'_ for its striking resemblance of an open mouth. The three D77-TC "Pelicans" were parked inside _the mouth_, effectively hiding them from Covenant patrols.

The newly set up headquarters were 30 meters wide, 40 meters long and 10 meters high. The walls were covered in fungus, which grew happily in the hot, moist environment of the volcano. Stacked around the room were grey, green and black boxes varying in size from large to small. The dropship pilots had dropped off their passengers and flown back to the _Indomitable_, only to receive a message from the AI Gayiyla to get the hell away from the ship. Instead, they'd decided to dock, gather as many supplies and people as they could, and then return. Now, the group of pilots and co-pilots were sitting on a group of ammo crates playing cards while they folks in charge decided on what to do. The group of technicians, medics, and navy staff were scattered around the room, doing their best to be useful. One of them was the main cook, and he'd set up shop in the back of the cavern, cooking dinner on a group of mini stoves gathered from survival packs. Most of the marines were hanging around the food, not wanting to miss out on dinner. Near each entrance a squad of three Helljumpers was posted standing guard. The remaining three were set up at various positions on the mountain with sniper rifles. Sergeant Jack Dallas wasn't taking any chances. The last thing they needed right now was a group of Covenant stumbling over them. In the middle of the chamber, a group of technicians had set up a computer terminal on top of a group of stacked crates and emergency tables along with a holopad.

Sitting cross-legged on one of the crates was Shadow-012, eating one of the most disgusting emergency rations she'd ever tasted. _Five meals a day? At this rate I'll be down to one meal every five days._ When she finished it, she turned over the wrapping to check the expiring date. _05/05/2505. Great. That just had to happen to me, didn't it? _Shadow sighed and tossed the paper over her shoulder into a makeshift litterbin while she was working on a plan. Sergeant Alice Lyran was sitting on the point of the table, deep in thought. Directly across her, Sergeant Jack Dallas was standing with one boot on top of a crate cleaning his BR55. Gayiyla was standing on her holopad, looking expectantly from Shadow to Lyran.

"Well?" The AI was getting impatient.

"You've only been waiting for 3 minutes." Dallas said.

"I can do a million calculations a second. It feels like 3 years."

Nobody replied to that as there was nothing to say. Shadow sighed. She wasn't used to making the plans. She got up and headed for the exit.

"Where do you think you're going?" Gayiyla demanded. Shadow spun around to face her.

"Sullers has the bridge crew of the _Indomitable_ as hostages and plans to hand them over to the Covenant. I'm going to stop her." She turned around to walk out.

"That's the most ridiculous plan u have ever heard."

"Then maybe ONI shouldn't have picked me. I don't make plans, I execute them."

"Stop it right there soldier." Lyran ordered. Shadow froze. "I think you do have a plan. Just not one you're sharing with us. So I'm ordering you to tell us."

"Ma'am. Are you prepared to hear something you won't like?" Shadow said, though her voice had chilled to an ice cold. Lyran was silent.

"Yes. I have a plan. I am going to head for the point Gayiyla has discovered will be the rendezvous point for the Covenant and the _Indomitable_. There, I will find transportation and a way onto the _Indomitable_. Once inside, I'll deal with Sullers and get the ship back."

"That's suicide!" Lyran said. Shadow just shrugged. Before she got a chance to say anything, Gayiyla spoke.

"You're crazy and you're not going."

"Yep, and yes I am. We can't let the covenant get a hold of one of our ships, let alone its crew. Do you want them to find Earth? Hold the fort 'till I get back." Shadow turned around again grabbing her backpack in one smooth motion and headed for the exit. Stopping to eject the ammo clip out of her BR55, she checked the ammo and putting it back in, then grabbed 8 clips from an open ammo crate, pocketed them and walked out of the cavern.

It had started to rain, turning the sand on the ground to mud. It was raining hard enough to turn visibility to about a meter, but Shadow wasn't bothered by it. She heard one of the Helljumpers swear in annoyance, and headed outside. The instant she stepped out into the rain, she was soaked. At least the rain would provide some cover. She'd need every advantage she could get to pull this off. Behind her she could hear the sound of a warthog approaching. The Pelican pilots had managed bring all 3 with them, and Dallas had happily set them up as scouts. The 'hog was getting closer, and Shadow turned around to see if she could hitch a ride. She waved at the driver, flagging him down. The 'hog stopped.

"Its way too wet outta here to be walkin. Whaddaya doin outside?" The driver shouted, trying to get over the rain.

"Doing what I was trained to do."

"Hey! It's you! I never got to thank you for getting me out of that prison! Hop on in!" Shadow laughed as she recognized the man sitting behind the wheel. She grabbed the front-window frame and pulled herself into the passenger seat.

"I'll be damned! Sanders! They let you out of the medbay?" Private Jason Sanders grinned as he steered the 'hog around a tree.

"Nah, just walked out when they weren't watchin! So, whatcha gonna blow up this time?!" Sanders shouted. When Shadow didn't reply, he asked again. She sighed, and then just decided to tell him about her plan. He had helped her out a few days before, so she figured she owed him at least some explanation. Sanders listened silently as she explained what had happened and what she was going to do about it. When she told him about her plan to hijack a Covenant dropship, he slammed the brakes. Shadow had to grab hold of the chair to stop herself from hitting the dashboard.

"No way I'm going to let you get yourself killed!" Sanders shouted. Shadow sighed.

"Dying wasn't part of my plan. Now drive. That's an order." Sanders sighed in annoyance, told her she wasn't going alone and then drove on.

XXX

It hadn't stopped raining. Shadow was hidden under a pack of leaves and mud, using the zoom on the BR55 to scan the area ahead. Sanders was standing under a tree looking for some shelter from the rain. Shadow grunted. This was not going to be easy. The area was crawling with grunts and jackals, and the dropship she wanted was right in the middle of them. She wished she had a M41 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launcher, sighted on the nearest jackal and pulled the trigger.

The three armor piercing rounds tore through the jackal and took down the grunt behind him as well. The rest of the aliens screeched in surprise and looked around in fear as another jackal dropped dead, followed by a pair of grunts. Sanders thought it looked like fun, dropped down next to Shadow, and joined in on killing the grunts. By now the jackals had found out where the fire was coming from and raised their energy shields in front of them. Shadow primed a grenade and tossed it into a trio of jackals. They ran from the grenade, but the shrapnel still got them. Sanders kept shooting grunts, dropping quite a few of them.

After a few minutes they'd taken down most of the covenant. Shadow got up and started running downhill firing a trio of bullets into an unfortunate grunt that got in the way, closely followed by Sanders who was screaming _You're absolutely fucking crazy!! _at her.

Shadow sidestepped as a grunt fired its overloaded charge at her, then slammed the butt of her rifle in its ugly head and jumped over the dead alien. She kept running, cutely aware that one direct hit from those overloads would kill her. She heard Sanders swear to a grunt and knew he was still following her. Firing another burst through a grunt standing in the airlock, the young woman leaped into the dropship and slammed the butt of her rifle into the brains of the grunt that was too slow to grab his weapon. "Clear!" Sanders ran in next, stumbling over the dead grunt and slamming face first into the inside of the hull. Shadow grinned as she closed the airlock and fired the engines. Outside what remained of the covenant forces fired at the ship as it flew away.

XXX

**November 13, 2525  
Space over Unknown Planet  
Serado System**

"When did those guys get here?" Sanders was glaring at the cluster of covenant ships in orbit. The cluster of ships that hadn't been there when they'd arrived in-system. Sanders blinked. There had to be at least 10 of them! Shadow didn't look too happy about it either.

"Offhand, I'd say that's the welcoming party. How good is your Covenant?" Sanders looked at what Shadow was looking at, and found himself wishing he'd kept his mouth shut about going with her. At 12 o'clock, headed directly for them, was one of the CCS-class Batllecruisers and a squadron of teardrop shaped Seraph-class fighters. The comm. blared out something neither of them understood, and Shadow hit the reply. She said something utterly meaningless and shrugged. Whoever was on the other side didn't find it as funny as Sanders who was laughing his ass off, and shouted something undoubtedly insulting.

"Right back at ya!" Shadow replied, and shut off the comm. She pointed Sanders to the weapons console and told him to fire at everything that moved. When he looked confused, she told him to just hit the button. With that many targets, he was bound to hit something, or at least scare them off. She grit her teeth and closed her eyes for a second. This was going to be a long day.

XXX

**November 13, 2525  
Orbit Unknown Planet  
Serado System**

Miracle over miracle, they managed to get to the _Indomitable_ alive. Shadow had no idea how, but they weren't dead and they were where they were going. Sanders had actually managed to down 3 of the fighters with random shooting. Now, as Shadow landed the Spirit in the _Indomitable_'s hangar, Sanders was laughing off the nerves.

"You must be the luckiest person in the galaxy." Sanders said. Shadow laughed and shook her head.

"No, I'm not. But probably second luckiest, yeah. Just how the hell did we get through that alive?" Shadow said in between laughs.

"Someone's luckier then you? I have got to meet that person!" This just made her laugh more.

"Let's just get going, before you're back to asking classified questions again." Sanders grumbled and got up to follow her. Shadow motioned for him to hot the airlock control and stay put. The moment the marine hit the button, Shadow shot out of the ship, expecting someone to fire at them. The hangar was empty. "Clear!" Sanders followed out, looking surprised.

"What, no welcoming party? I'm insulted!" Shadow shook her head and motioned for silence. She directed him to cover the door as she found herself a console. _Let's see…_ Suddenly, the console lit up, startling Shadow.

"What took you so long?" Gayiyla popped up, looking very impatient.

"What are you doing here? The last thing I want is another complication!"

"I have a plan for you that will hopefully deal with most of the covenant ground forces. Rig the Spirit's main cannon to overload after the first shot, then connect it directly to the engines. Once the turret overloads it should cause an explosion large enough to take out a nice chunk of Covenant forces. You will have to manually fire the first shot though. After the overload starts, you have about 20 seconds to get as far away as you can." Shadow thought it over for a second as Sanders groaned.

"Hm. Sounds like something we usually do. I like it."

"Off course you do. Things get demolished in the process." Gayiyla smiled in amusement. "Go stop Sullers first, or it'll be for nothing. There aren't any covenant forces inside the ship, so you've got a clear run to the bridge." Shadow nodded and ran out of the hangar as Gayiyla disappeared. Sanders followed closely.

XXX

The journey to the bridge was an uneventful one. Gayiyla had been right; the ship hadn't been boarded yet for some reason. Shadow was still trying to come up with a way to get into the bridge without having Sullers kill the crew as they approached the bridge doors. Standing in front of it were Captain Sinns and Lieutenant Farrow. They looked surprised to see the two soldiers walking up to them.

"You two were on the planet! How did you get here?" Sinns said.

"Hijacked a covenant dropship. I need details." Shadow stated simply.

"Sullers is armed, and the entire bridge crew minus the two of us is still in there. She seems so have forced them to back up against the portside hull and is keeping them under shot. She's arranged a deal with the covenant to hand us all over, but I doubt they'll let the entire crew live. Also, she seems particularly interested in you, she's not too happy about not having access to restricted files. No, we didn't tell her anything." Shadow snorted in amusement. Then she explained her plan. There was only one way into the bridge, and that was through the main doors. They were going to blast the doors open, hopefully startling Sullers long enough for Shadow to take her out while everyone else got the crew to safety. Nobody objected, and Shadow planted a charge on the door. Shadow took cover just next to the door as the rest headed down the hall a little further. Sinns blew the charge after Shadows thumbs up, and Shadow was a blur of motion as she shot into the bridge.

"Don't move." Dana Sullers was not startled. In fact, she seemed to have been expecting them. Shadow froze as she saw Sullers point an M6D at her. Sinns, Farrow and Sanders charged in next, stopping their assault instantly as the saw the situation. The ships navigations Officer, Ensign Lisa Hogen, was clutching her leg from a shot wound. The rest of the crew appeared unharmed but scared. They were all Navy personnel, not used to physical combat.

"Don't try anything funny or you're dead. Drop your weapons. NOW!" Sullers said. The four of them complied, although reluctantly. "Now, I'm sure you can take me out the moment I blink, so someone tie her up!" Shadow grunted. That wasn't part of her plan. Nobody moved. Sullers threw Sanders a rope. "Move it!" Sanders stared at it, then swore. He walked over to Shadow, apologized and bound her hands behind her back. Shadow didn't look away from the gun Sullers was still pointing at her.

"Why are you doing all this? What's in this for you?" Sinns asked, hoping to distract Sullers long enough for... what exactly? He didn't know, but tried anyway. The woman sneered on anger.

"You want to know? YOU are! Your UNSC! They killed my fiancé. He had nothing to do with you, yet you killed him!" Sullers almost screamed. Farrow and Sanders just blinked in surprise. The woman was crazy. Sinns wasn't so sure. Shadow just remained silent, letting the captain handle it. She was waiting for a chance to make her move. Sinns was asking Sullers about what had happened.

"He was a dockworker on one of our hideouts. We were just working there because we had nowhere to go. Then one day about 2 months ago one of your Special Forces teams came in and blew a large chunk out of our hangar while stealing a Pelican. My fiancé was blown into space!" _THAT_ got Shadows attention.

"Where was this?" She asked.

"The Epsilon Eridani system." Shadow groaned. _I knew it. _Just her luck again.

"We have no idea what you're talking about." Sinns replied. "Do any of you know what she's on about?" He asked the Sanders, Farrow and Shadow. Both men replied no, but Shadow sighed. Sinns raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You?" Shadow felt just about ready to slam her head against the wall. This just _had_ to happen, didn't it? She sighed.

"It's classified, but yes, I know what she is talking about."

"We're not in the position to play ONI's games. Tell us." Sinns said. Shadow nodded, but thought about how to tell it without too much info.

"It was our first real mission, infiltrate the rebel base and get Colonel Watts out to hand him over to ONI. I wasn't part of the team that went in; most of us had to wait. Afterwards, Kelly told us what had happened. Apparently, things didn't go so well, and they had to blow out a large chunk of the hangar door to escape." There. Not too much info, just the basics. Sinns seemed to have gotten the message, while Sanders and Farrow just looked amazed. Sullers sneered.

"Yes, that's what I meant! You were involved?!"

"Not personally, no. but I know the people who were quite well." Shadow replied dryly.

"Who and where?! I'll hunt them down personally! They'll pay!" Shadow doubled over from laughter. The idea was utterly ridiculous, and she just couldn't stop herself from laughing. Where the hell did she get the idea she'd live long enough to even get near Reach? Shadow laughed harder as she imagined the look on Sullers face. Even Sinns was laughing at Sullers' stupidity.

"Tell me!"

"Woman, you are absolutely, totally stupid. You have no idea what is going on, and you probably wouldn't live long enough to even blink. Don't even bother trying." Sinns told Sullers. This just pissed her off more. She looked Shadow over once.

"Just what the hell are you?"

"Something you'll never be." Shadow said. Sinns stifled a laugh. Well, it was true. Sullers spun around in anger to face the captain.

That was the last mistake she ever made. The moment Sullers looked away, Shadow moved. She slid the knife from her sleeve and cut the robe around her wrists. Two fast steps got her close enough to Sullers to grab her pistol. Sullers spun around to stop her, but to Shadow, the woman moved in slow-motion. Shadow grabbed the pistol, snapped Sullers' wrist and fired the weapon. All this happened in less then two seconds. Dana Sullers fell backward, hitting the ground with a _thud_. A small hole sat cleanly between her eyes.

Everyone was staring at Shadow. Sinns walked over to his crew, Farrow doing the same. Sanders walked over to Shadow, handing her back her BR55. She nodded in thanks, and then slung the rifle over her shoulder. Sanders suddenly yelped. Shadow looked up at the view port, and swore. They had the ship back, but the Covenant had arrived to take it from them again.

**TBC…**


	8. A day of destruction

**A/N: Chapter 8. With an evil cliffhanger the size of the moon. Gawd i love writing those. reading/playing them.. not really. (bungie i hate you! : and i speak for over a few billion halo fans right now!) Ahem. Anyway, This chapter was a major pain in the ass. U'm an action writor, emotional stuff just isn't my thing. give me a nasty situation with no obvious way out and i'm happy. It took me a whole 2 weeks just to write that part. I hope it worked out allright. if it didn't.. well, i apologize.  
Also, i'd liek to say that it's horribly sad that the only person who posted a review is Dorvalla, who is actually one of my friends. no need to reply to his review, as he already knows what i would say anyway. Where the fuck is everybody?! **

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**November 1****4, 2525  
****Orbit ****Unknown Planet (Identified As Seron)  
****Serado System**

The crew had gotten back to their stations after lieutenant Farrow had thrown Sullers' body out of the airlock. Most were still shaken from the event, but they didn't have the time to be shocked. The ship had reached the rendezvous point Sullers had set up with them, and there were a _lot_ of ships. Ensign Lisa Hogen was fighting to turn the ship around, her bloodied leg hastily patched up with some biofoam, but she was still shaking. Shadow was holding on to an emergency handle on the wall, and Sanders was clutching her arm. Gayiyla had been ordered to stay out of the ships computer until they had cleaned it of any traps Sullers had set up to catch the AI. So Gayiyla was residing in the large backpack Shadow was carrying, standing on the wrist bound holopanel. The two Longsword squadrons were engaged in dogfights with the Seraph fighters. Shadow gave up listening to their chatter after a few minutes.

She was annoyed, to say the least. Space fights weren't her thing; she preferred to have her feet on the ground. There was nothing she could do in space except watch. Although Shadow didn't doubt the skills of the crew or the pilots, having something to shoot at and her fate in her own hand was something she preferred. She couldn't stand by and watch, unable to do anything. Though she had a feeling she was about to get something to do soon enough, which was confirmed the moment lieutenant Farrow announced the incoming boarding craft. Shadow realized this wasn't good. There was nobody besides her and Sanders to repel them. She was about to mention it, when Gayiyla beat her to it. Sinns blinked a few times and swore.

"We don't have a choice. You said you came in driving a dropship? Good. The bridge crew is all that's left, it should fit in the ship. This is our stop; we're getting off this boat. Lieutenant, activate the self-destruct, Ensign, lay in a collision course for the biggest covenant ship you can find, then get your ass to the hangar. All of you! Shadow, Gayiyla's your responsibility." The young woman nodded and pulled her battle rifle off her back to check the ammo. "Private, make sure she stays alive long enough to do what she has to do." Sanders was about to protest, but the captain had already started talking to someone else. Shadow shrugged, and slammed the clip shut.

"Pick up your jaws and move out." Shadow said, walking off the bridge.

"You heard her, let's go." Sinns said, then waited for the rest to follow. Ensign Hogen was out last, supported by Farrow and Ensign Aldos.

XXX

The spirit was hovering above the ground, moving slightly when everyone jumped out. Shadow was the last, and she didn't get out. Sinns looked surprised.

"Waiting for something?" Shadow shook her head.

"No sir. Just doing what I was send to do. When you spot an explosion, be on the lookout for some very upset aliens." Shadow spun around. "Oh, and don't come after me. That's an order." The dropship lifted up and headed in the direction of the planet's northern pole.

XXX

Shadow was working on the ships powerlines, following Gayiyla's instructions. The AI was flying the ship, giving Shadow the chance to do what needed to be done.

"Have you thought this out completely?" The AI asked her.

"No."

"Do you have a plan to get away fast enough?"

"No."

"An idea?"

"No."

"Anything?"

"No."

"Think you'll die?" The AI sounded worried.

"If I die, I die."

"You're a real optimist!"

"No, realist. Ok, wires connected, we're good to go." Shadow stood up, grabbed her BR55 and walked over to the cockpit. "Put it on manual, I'll fly."

"You can't even keep this thing in one piece on the ground, let alone in the air. And who's going to send out the proper codes?" The AI asked.

"Someone who understands their language. Which, sadly, neither of us can. And once I fire, there's going to be 20 seconds left before we turn this thing into a miniature sun. That's too little time to pull you out of the systems. So sort yourself, I'm taking over. "

The plan, if it could be called one, was to rig the ships power core directly into the weapons. One shot would overload them, causing an explosion big enough to kill everything around it. There were several thousand covenant troops in one place, and it would be stupid not to make use of that. So Shadow and Gayiyla had come up with this, and now there was no backing out as they approached the encampment. Shadow sat down in the chair as Gayiyla's chip popped out of the main terminal. She grabbed it and secured it in her utility belt. 1000 meters to go.

She took a deep breath, then guided the ship directly towards the camp. Several banshees headed her way, but she ignored them. 500 meters.

At 300 meters, she slowed the ship down, angling it for the ground.

A 100 meters before she hit the ground, she got up, grabbed her rifle, and took one last deep breath. She hit the door release and fire button when the ship was 5 meters from the ground, then shot out of the ship.

She was greeted by at least 5000 curious covenant troops, ranging from hunter to grunts. The moment she hit the ground, she was face to face with a stunned elite. The alien roared a challenge, but shadow had slipped past it. It took her less then half a second to realize she was completely surrounded by the largest covenant force she had ever seen, then brushed the thought aside as she ran at top speed through the aliens. She once again marveled at the fact they seemed to move in slow motion, but was too busy dodging plasma shots and energy swords. 10 seconds. She wasn't even halfway to the rim of the blast radius. Dead ahead were two hunters, with charged cannons. They both fired at her.

Shadow threw herself on the ground, and rolled underneath the shots, then rolled back to her feet. She ran around the hunters, leaving them behind her. 5 seconds left. Shadow began to realize she might not make it. The safe zone was too far away. She'd made a critical error of judgment, and she knew it. 3. A plasma shot missed her head by a centimeter, and she could feel the heat in her face. 2. She was out of time and out of options. 1. She was still over a hundred meters from the blast radius when the ground shook. Knowing she could never outrun the blast, she spun around. If she was going to die, she was going to die facing it, not running away from it.

She saw the blast coming, and threw her arms up to protect her face. The shockwave hit her, throwing her into the air, and everything went black.

XXX

Sergeant Lyran was supervising the doctors as they patched up ensign Hogen when something shook the ground. On the other side of the room, private Sanders shot up from where he was sitting and ran outside. The navy personnel looked around in terror, but when none of the marines looked disturbed, they seemed to calm down. A bit. Sergeant Dallas was talking to the captain who seemed to be disagreeing on something. Lyran sighed, probably another movie again, judging from the sergeant's grin. That man was obsessed with movies. She got up and walked outside. Private sanders was sitting on a rock, staring off into the distance. Alice walked over to him.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Sure. It's not my rock ma'am." She sat down. The rock was big enough to fit a warthog on top of it.

"Worried?" She asked.

"Yeah. Ma'am, permission to speak freely? "

"Granted"

"Why's the UNSC sending kids to fight in this war? She can't be older then 17, what's she doing here?" Lyran sighed. She'd asked the same question several times herself as well, but the answer didn't change.

"Because she can do things we can't."

"But why? It's not right. She should be at school, hanging out and doing fun things, not get shot at and risk her life!"

"I can't answer that, and I'm not allowed to even if I could. Something's bothering you." The man sighed.

"How'd you know?"

"You're staring at a tree." The man laughed. "Out with it." The marine hesitated.

"I had a son about her age. He died when the first wave hit."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know. Maybe he was among the evacuees?"

"No." He shook his head.

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I saw him die." Lyran had no idea what to say. This wasn't what she'd expected to hear. It made sense though. "I never got a chance to say goodbye. I…I killed the elite in charge after they'd killed the rest of my platoon, and the next thing I know, I'm in a brig on a covenant ship. I lost track of how long I was there. There was nobody else, so I had nobody to talk to. Then one day they bring in someone else. I was so amazed that they'd actually bring in kids into this fight. So much for honor. But when she killed that elite, I realized she wasn't a civilian. I'd never seen anyone move like that." He shook his head. "What is she? Is she even human?"

"I'm sorry, that's classified. But yes, she's human."

"Yeah, I guessed." He sighed. "Every goddamn thing seems to be classified nowadays. She's far too young to be in this war, far too young to die out here. I couldn't stop my boy from dying… But maybe I can redeem myself a bit by keeping her alive. I can at least try."

"She might not let you. She's a more professional soldier then any of us; her life doesn't matter to her. She will give her life to complete her mission. If you try to stop her, she will never forgive you. Private, she's a highly trained killer. Getting in her way might be the last thing you ever do. Help her when you can, but don't try to stop her. She and her friends might be our last hope."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Forget I said that. Get a pelican. Investigate the site of that explosion. If she's still alive, get her out of there. If she's not… Well, you know the drill."

"Dog tags, ID, weapons, ammo. But she's still alive."

"How do you know? "

"I'm not letting her die that easily." With that, he jumped off the rock and sprinted towards the pelicans.

XXX

"We've reached the site. You're not gonna like it." The pelican was hovering over a massive crater. In the dead center, a few pieces of metal were still visible. Smoldering remains littered the ground, marking the positions of thousands of Covenant soldiers who had been completely incinerated. The pilot whistled in appreciation. "Someone did a lot of damage here."

"There's nothing left…" Sanders whispered sadly. The pilot swung the pelican around.

"Doing another pass. I don't think you'll find anything alive down there."

"Put us down near the edge of the crater! The edge nearest to our base!" Sanders yelled over the roar of the engines and rushing air. The pilot did as told, putting the pelican down on the blackened ground. The marine jumped out. "Keep it running, there's bound to be covenant lurking around here looking for survivors."

"If he really had only 20 seconds, you might want to be looking nearer to the center!" Sanders ignored him. He looked around, hoping to see anything familiar. But there was nothing there except burned remains of thousands of bodies, no longer recognizable at all. His stomach sank as he called out. But there was no response. He was about to call her again when the pilot spoke up.

"I'm picking up movement! And it's not friendly!" as on que, a group of covenant forces walked into the clearing, attacked to the sound of the pelican. Sanders gave one last look around, then jumped back on board.

"Goodbye kid."

**TBC…. **

**MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA. **


	9. Battle for The Hole

**A/N: Whew. this one was fun to do! Not much to say, so read away! (hey, that rhymes!)**

jakster02: Yeah, i've been quite busy :) Glad you're still reading this.

Jiyu Nanohana: I'm Evil, i know :D muahahaha.

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**November 14, 2525  
Planet Seron, Serado System  
****Temporary UNSC Base "The Hole"**

The sun was rising, casting a soft, orange glow over the landscape. The mountains turned a colorful sight of purple, orange, white and green, leaving a stunning sight to behold. The sound of singing birds filled the air, and a soft fog hung over the fields. The planet was waking up from a dark night, relieved to see daylight once more. Rabbit–like creatures roamed the fields, hoping to catch an early prey for breakfast. Small drips of water fell off the trees, making the landscape look peaceful.

Things were pretty quiet, Jack Dallas mused as he peered down the scope of an SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle. The helljumper sergeant was on sniper duty, and was currently hidden behind a rock. The night had been relatively quiet, considering there were some very pissed off covenant forces on this dirt ball. The fact that nearly 80 percent of their assault fore was dead didn't make them any happier. Expecting an attack, the UNSC forces have been busy all night digging in, but nothing had come. They had survived the night without a single event.

But now, at dawn, Dallas was getting anxious. Most had been up all night, working hard to set up a perimeter, digging trenches, setting traps and scouting the area. The Covenant weren't stupid. They knew the art of warfare all too well. That meant they were aware of the standards, such as lowered awareness during dusk and dawn. All living beings were less on their toes during these moments, relieve from the rising sun making them calm, tiredness of a long day tiring them. Such advantages would be used often in skirmishes past, present and future.

The UNSC had learned from past mistakes, changing their routine. Changing of guard no longer took place in the early and late hours, but in the middle of the day and night. Three shifts, not two would keep people more awake. It had worked well several times, and it would not fail them now.

Movement caught his eye, just off his peripheral field. He peered through the scope of the sniper rifle, praying the movement was just an animal. Instead, there was absolutely nothing to be seen. The man sighed, this planet was starting to get on his nerves. He was starting to imagine things. He looked away, just as he saw something move. Annoyed, he looked again, only to find what he expected to find: nothing. He cursed the lack of a good cup of coffee. They had ran out of coffee half a day ago, as the technicians tended to drink a lot of the stuff. Now, they were all stuck with water, much to the annoyance of the Helljumpers who tended to like coffee more then tea. He saw something move.

Dallas zoomed in, hoping to find the animal responsible for the irritant. What he saw, however, was something very different. The air in front of the tree was shimmering. The helljumper sergeant swore as he activated his helmet comm.  
"We've got stealthed elites on the north side, engaging!" His rifle boomed, and one of the shimmering forms fell, It's stealth generator overloading from the attempt to compensate. An elite fell to the ground, dead, with a small hole through it's ugly head. Dallas could hear the sound of the rifles from the other two snipers he had posted on the mountain.

The Covenant seemed to realize they'd been discovered, because several elites appeared out of this air, and large groups of grunts and jackals lined up behind them from the woods. Sergeant Alice Lyran was shouting orders over the comm. system, splitting the men into classes. The snipers focused on the elites, while the rocket jockeys focused on the 6 hunters lumbering into the clearing. The rest were split up into a group of grenadiers, responsible for throwing grenades into large packs of aliens, while the largest group focused on the grunt and jackals. The pelican pilots were told to stay on the ground. The birds had very little ammo to begin with, and they needed to conserve as much of it as possible.

Over the past two days, They hadn't been sitting on their hands. Trenches were dug, which ran crisscross around the mountain, providing everyone in them with a clear line of fire. The extracted sand was used to create small hills to provide cover to the snipers. The area around the mountain had been completely stripped of all trees and plants. This worked for two things. First off, to take away all elements the covenant could use to sneak up on them, and secondly, to provide the humans with a clear view of the area. There was nowhere the covenant could hide.

The non-combatants were deep inside the mountain, safely away from aerial strikes and gunfire. The navy staff were not soldiers, and thus not of much use in a fight. There were safer off out of the way deeply inside the large volcano, where they could not become a liability. This much to the chagrin of captain Sinns, but Lyran had told him, politely, to shut the fuck up and do as she said. The rest of the bridge crew, technicians and medics were happy to comply, and so the captain accepted her 'advise' and stayed inside.

The trees at the far end of the clearing shook, and Dallas swore as he saw what had caused it. Hundreds of covenant soldiers charged into the clearing, intend on wiping out the humans hiding in the mountain. _Where's that girl when you need her?_ They'd all seen the large explosion several clicks away from their current location, but only a select few knew private Sanders had gone and check out the site of the explosion. The news he had brought back was not good. They were now stuck on an alien world without any means of getting off the planet, and their tactical commander was MIA, presumed KIA.

The _Indomitable_ was nothing more then scrap. Gayiyla, it's AI, had set the ship to self-destruct after they'd left, and it had made a nice second sun in the sky. But it also meant they were grounded with no chance of escape. No ship meant no long-range communications, which meant they couldn't contact FleetCom for extraction. On top of that, their chief medic was dead, killed by a covenant ambush when he and four others were out to help a marine that had been caught in an ambush. All 4 marines and the medic were dead, the two Helljumpers send to escort the medic were severely injured. With only one other, less experienced medic available, the two men's chances were slim.

And now, the only person with the skills to sneak in and out of the covenant facility was presumed dead. Dallas swore he was cursed. His mother had been right, he should've been a dentist, like his father had been.

"You'd have made the worst dentist ever!" Lyran's voice came in over his comm. Dallas grinned.

"Was that out loud?"

"No, I can read minds. Would you stop thinking about what ifs and more about dead alien bastards? Very much appreciated." He could hear her laugh. Dallas had long ago classed the marine sergeant as completely nuts. She seemed to love combat, and was not happy until she got to kill something, preferably with as much blood or explosions as possible. Still, the woman was a good listener, even if she had the most twisted sense of humor ever. The more disgusting the joke, the better. He supposed it had everything to do with hanging around with the rest of the marines.

"Rockets, fire!" A load roar broke through the air as over a dozen rockets were all aimed for the nearest hunter pair. The large bulky aliens disappeared in the explosion, vaporized. But for every covenant soldier that fell, three more took it's place. The second pair of hunters fired their fuel rod cannons at the position of two of the rocket jockeys, and they screamed as the superheated plasma incinerated them. Nothing remained of them. Lyran swore, ordering the other men to take cover and reload.

More and more covenant soldiers kept falling to the continuous sniper fire, but it was a lost cause. There were too many of them, and too few of the human soldiers. The grunts hosed the barricades they'd set up with a constant stream of plasma, turning the sand into superheated glass. The jackals had gathered up front, providing cover to the other aliens with their shields. A few marines screamed as their cover was burned away and ran for cover, only to be mowed down by the elites' fire. Dallas fed a new clip into his sniper rifle, and took aim on the nearest elite.

"Second wave! Your turn boys, mow 'em down!" The rest of the female sergeant's words were lost in the roar of three warthogs that raced onto the field, mowing down everything in their paths. HE could heard the gunners' shouts over the comm.. the men in the warthogs were having a good time, with plenty or targets to pick from. Groups of grunts fell, mercilessly cut down by the constant stream of bullets from the hog's chaingun. Lyran was laughing, enjoying the sight.

"You're completely nuts!" Dallas said to her over a private channel.

"HELL YEAH!!" Was the reply. The helljumper sergeant grinned and shook his head. "BRING IT! HAVE ANOTHER, ALIEN FREAK!" Completely crazy.

"This is insane!! I thought I was done with insane!!" Another voice came in over the channel. Private Jason Sanders was leading the company of warthogs, much to the annoyance of higher ranking officers. But truth be told, the marine had proven himself to be quite a soldier in the last few days, and Lyran had deemed it right to assign him to lead the group of 'hogs. If only to get the man to focus on something other then the past few days. He wasn't taking Shadow's death well, and Lyran feared it might make him ;loose his focus. So she'd kept him busy over the past few days. It seemed to work.

"You could always climb out and walk your way back to cover." Lyran mused.

"That's suicide! I'm totally done with suicide too!" The man cheered as he cut down a hunter, followed by a curse as the other alien fired his cannon at the hog. The private yelled at the driver to evade. The shot narrowly missed the vehicle, and the marine fired at the hunter. The ugly big alien roared, then fell, dead. Lyran said something about it being a nice shot, but half of it was lost as Dallas focused on a small, glowing blue orb headed his way.

The helljumper recognized a plasma grenade when he saw one, and this was definitely one. He got up and ran, diving behind a second small sand hill for cover. The place he'd just been turned bright blue, and all that remained of his previous hill was a large patch of blackened glass. He aimed at the elite that had thrown the grenade, putting a bullet clean through it's head. The alien's shield flickered, but it couldn't stop the bullet. The son of a bitch fell, leaving the grunts under it's command to run and scream in fear.

"Sarge! We've got a wraith just behind the tree line!" Dallas swore as one of his men called in. Lyran seemed to have gotten the message as well, because a few seconds later, her command to fire rockets came in. A volley of ten rockets shot over the battlefield, hitting the wraith dead on. The massive tank exploded before it could fire a single shot. The rocket jockeys cheered, then took cover again as a group of grunts targeted their positions.

Dallas was out of ammo by the time most of the covenant forces had been wiped out, and he swapped his sniper rifle for a BR55. He signaled five of his men to follow him in, then charged out into the field. The large amount of bodies provided the men with some cover as they took down groups of grunts and jackals. The elites were still the snipers' main targets, and the Helljumpers didn't bother with them.

"Down!" Dallas flung himself to the ground just as a hail of bullets shot past over his head. Alice Lyran put another ten rounds through the elite's head for good measure, then helped the helljumper off the ground. "You need to watch your back!" Two of her men were working on taking down a group of grunts, effectively trapping them in a crossfire. The ground turned a bright blue as a plasma grenade landed between them. The two marines tried to run, but they didn't stand a chance as the grenade exploded. Lyran cursed as she threw a frag in between the group of aliens that had thrown the plasma grenade. The aliens screamed as a thousand pieces of flying shrapnel from the grenade cut into them. Bright colored blue and purple blood stained the ground.

A warthog shot past, driving over a fleeing grunt. The marine riding shotgun shouted "Roadkill!" while private Sanders cut down a group of jackals with the chaingun. Spend shells littered the floor of the vehicle, a testimony to the large amount of bullets fired from the large mounted weapon. Lyran's plan to get the marine to focus on something seemed to have worked, as the man laughed at a grunt trying to hide behind an elite. They were both cut down by the hail of bullets.

XXX

The battle lasted the better part of the day. In the end, all that remained of the covenant forces were dead bodies and debris. However, several human bodies were amongst the dead as well. All that remained of the _Indomitable's_ ground forces were 18 marines and 8 helljumpers. Even with the deaths they had suffered, Dallas still felt this fight had been too easy. Now, all survivors were gathered inside the main cavern again, while the medic treated their wounds.

"Why didn't they use more vehicles?" Lyran thought about his question for a few seconds.

"Maybe all were destroyed in the explosion?" The helljumper shook his head.

"Too easy. We got away with this far too easy. We never won from them, why should we now? There's more to it."

"You're paranoid!" Lyran said. Dallas grunted.

"We were outnumbered, outgunned and pinned down. Yet we won. Doesn't that strike you as even remotely suspicious?"

"Yeah, maybe they've got more planned? We should get tha hell outta here, move to a different location."

"Private Sanders is right. we're sitting ducks out here. Better relocate, find someplace hidden. " Lyran said. Dallas nodded, it sounded like a fair idea. The Covenant knew where they were now, it was just a matter of time before they found a way to flush them out. And then they'd have nowhere to run. He spun around, facing his men who were eating or getting treated for injuries.

"Pack it up boys, we're moving!" They got up, heading for the supply crates. In less then ten minutes, everything was loaded onto the warthogs and the pelicans. Two minutes later, they moved out, in search of another base. Unfortunately, most of the planet was monitored by the covenant. They moved during the nights, hoping to avoid patrols.

XXX

**November 17****, 2525  
Planet Seron, Serado System**

**Ground, current position unknown.**

The group of UNSC personnel still hadn't found a place to hide. On top of all other troubles, it had started to rain again. They'd set up camp in the middle of the jungle, using the trees as cover. The trip was starting to take it's toll on the navy personnel, The men and women were not trained or such bad conditions. They were exhausted, depressed and scared. They'd been hunted like animals, running through a soaked jungle with no safe place to go. Every time they ran into a patrol, someone died. They were all starting to hate this planet, badly.

They had to find a way to contact the UNSC if they were ever going to get out of there. But the only long range communications option there was on this planet, was located inside the Covenant facility. And private sanders was very keen on mentioning the dangers of the virus they were testing. And even if they got to it, nobody could operate it. Their AI was gone, and nobody else could read or speak covenant. Right about now, even sergeant Dallas had to admit he was out of ideas.

The captain was talking to Sanders, who seemed to be in a bad mood. He said something about having been better off in that covenant prison. Sinns did his best to convince him that wasn't true, but he wasn't having much luck.

"I'll fight sir, don't worry. I just wanna go home, but there aint anythin' left of it."

"You're from Harvest, right? Must've been hell…"

"It was. Everyone I knew is dead. Alien sons of bitches killed my family an' friends."

The conversation went on, but Dallas decided it was better if he kept out of it. He wondered if there was any chance they'd be able to get out. Even if they got a message out, there was no guarantee anyone would come for them. They were on a hostile planet, perhaps HighCom wouldn't want to take the risk. He hadn't told the naval crew this, moral was low enough as it was.

The rain kept on falling, soaking all of them. They were cold, temperature during the night dropped to below 5 degrees Celsius on this world. They couldn't risk a campfire, the smoke would give away their position to the covenant. The navy crew were all sitting against the warthogs, the remaining heat from the engines providing them with some warmth. They weren't dressed for such bitter conditions, clad in their uniforms. The ground pounders were better dressed to stand the cold. But if the temperature kept dropping, it wouldn't be enough. Things were looking grim for all of them.

XXX

A few hundred clicks away, something beneath a pile of debris moved.

**TBC… **


	10. Not Again!

**Sorry it took so long. This oen didn't turn out quite like i wanted it, and it took me AGES to find the right words. so, if it sucks, bear with me, writing it sucked too. ;) the first part wasn't so bad, but it just kept getting harder and harder. **

**Jiyu Nanohana:** Yep, i wasn't about to kill of the main character just yet ;)

**Jakster02:** Thank you. :)

* * *

17 November 2525  
Seron, Sera System  
Groundside, current position: unknown

Private Jason Sanders had completely had it with this planet. It hadn't stopped raining in the last 2 days, he hadn't had a decent hour of sleep with the covenant hunting them, they were running out of ammunitions and rations, and on top of that, the goddamn navy crew just wouldn't stop complaining about everything! He felt like strangling a few of them, just to make then shut up. It was just stress, they all had it, he knew that. Some of the Helljumpers had not too subtly expressed their desire to shoot some of them, make a point. He couldn't blame them

Did they even know where they were? What they were doing on this world? Were they even aware they didn't have any way to go home, that they would most likely die here? Probably not, Sinns had been very clear; they were not to be told. Morale was already low enough as it was. Sanders figured it would just make them complain more.

He was sitting on a tree trunk, keeping an eye out for covenant hunting parties. Sneaky little bastards were always cloaked, not showing themselves until they were right on top of them. The constant fighting was starting to take its toll on them. Sergeants Lyran and Dallas were constantly arguing about whatever nonsense they could find. He remembered one particular moment, a few hours ago…

"_It's not a branch, it's a young tree!" Lyran was screaming at Dallas, who seemed just as pissed as she was. _

"_Nope, it's a fucking branch! See! It has leaves! These little green things are called leaves!" Lyran fumed. He just wouldn't listen! _

"_NO! It's NOT a branch! It's in the ground, growing on its own! It's a young tree! Young trees have leaves too!" The little thing happened to be both; it was a branch that was starting to grow on its own again after having been broken off by a covenant patrol storming past. A patrol that had been in quite a hurry to find the humans currently sitting in the clearing. Lyran was currently in the process of explaining how a tree grew, as a shimmer in the air next to her shot everyone into full alert. A blue elite appeared, screaming a battle cry. _

_Lyran, in her annoyance, wasn't impressed. She waved the small tree in front of the elite, snorting. "Mister stupid here says it's a branch. I think it's a tree. Thoughts? Suggestions?" The elite stared at the woman, confused. _

"_Scaly here doesn't speak English." Dallas was grinning. "And judging by the gun pointed at you, he agrees with me."_

"_Go to hell." The female sergeant growled as she shot the elite in the face. Chaos ensued as the remaining covenant forces opened fire. _

They'd fought off that wave, but it was just a matter of time. They were in pretty deep trouble. With only 10 people left in fighting condition and a group of 20 civilians and navy personnel to protect, they needed to find a place to hole up in, fast. This planet was a deathtrap. A complete and utter deathtrap. Sanders wondered what the hell ONI had been thinking, sending anyone on this mission. He wondered. Had Shadow known this was a suicide mission from the start? That she'd never return from this place alive? Find death on this godforsaken world out in the middle of nowhere?

"_Oh, and don't come after me. That's an order." _Those words were haunting him every night. Ignoring a direct order, he had gone after her. And now he wished he hadn't. Nobody could've survived a blast like that, no matter how tough that person was. If the explosion itself hadn't killed her, the shockwave was powerful enough to turn human bone into dust. Still, she'd taken a lot of covenant with her. He wondered if her family knew she was dead.

_Hang on…._ Did she even have a family? What kind of parents would let their teenage daughter fight on the frontlines of a bloody war like this? She'd never mentioned anything from back home. So what did he really know about her? She had said she was from Reach. Everyone treated her like an officer, but she had no rank as far as he knew. She claimed to be 16 years old, but she looked and acted like someone in their early twenties, someone who'd never had a chance to be a child. She seemed to be more like the perfect soldier then a teenager. He'd seen her bend metal with her bare hands, snap an elite's neck, block a blow that would've snapped someone's bone into a hundred pieces without a scratch, dodge gunfire and run at impossible speeds. It all didn't seem to add up.

But none of it mattered anymore. Tough as she'd been, she could not have survived that blast. If she had, she would've caught up with them by now. That was what he kept telling himself. The thought that she was still out there somewhere, injured, captured, perhaps dying, was something he couldn't bring himself to face. Because if it was true, it meant they'd abandoned her, left her out there alone to die.

Whatever his next thoughts might've been, he didn't get the chance to form them as one of the marines suddenly screamed in pain. The man looked down to stare at two glowing tips sticking out of his gut. The blade withdrew, and the man dropped to the ground, dead. Sergeant Lyran shouted "ELITES!" at the same moment everyone wildly grabbed for his or her weapon. An elite materialized, standing over the dead marine. Behind him, a lot more covenant appeared. One of the Helljumpers swore, spinning around. She was looking for a way out, but there was none. Everyone instantly formed a defensive perimeter around the navy personnel. The soldiers braced for the hailstorm of plasma the covenant would release upon them.

It never came. The elite that had gutted the marine said something, but none of the humans could understand it.

"Look ugly, I haven't a clue at what you're saying-"

"Sir, can I try? A friend of mine's been working on translating their language, and I picked up a few things." Ensign Lisa Hogen interrupted Sinns before he could finish. When the captain nodded, she limped forward, careful not to put too much weight on her injured leg. The elite just stared, and then tried again. When the human woman was silent, he made a gesture to shoot her. Hogen found the words she was looking for. "Ton Dnatsrednu. Tnaw uoy tahw?" She knew the grammar was all messed up, but it was a start. The Sangheili looked baffled, then barked back in simple words.

"Ohw si ruoy rednammoc? Hcihw namuh si ni egrahc?" Most of the words didn't make sense, but she picked out _in charge_. It was enough to get the meaning.

"Og Ot Lehh!" She told them.

"What did you just tell them? They look more pissed then before!" Dallas said.

The Ensign shrugged. He asked who our CO is, I told him to go to hell."

"That last part means go to hell? Gotta remember that one!"

"Ohw si ruoy rednammoc!! The elite asked again. But the humans just ignored him. The elite motioned with his plasma sword. "Evom!"

"He said move." Hogen said helpfully. A chorus of _We know!_ was the response as Dallas, Lyran, Sanders and Sinns all replied at the same time. They shrugged, then set out to follow the elites. Sanders figured it could be worse. At least they were still alive. But for how long….?

XXX

Everything. Hurt.

Shadow-012 grunted as she gave the rock pinning her down another shove. The stupid thing wouldn't move. She'd tried yelling at it, swearing at it, shooting it, kicking it (her foot now hurt), and glaring at it. Nothing worked. Damn that rock to hell and back, she hadn't come this far to be defeated by a piece of stone. Spartans didn't do defeat. She gave the rock an annoyed push, and resisted the urge to cheer as it rolled off her. She took a moment to recap and inspect the damage.

Her left arm was broken in at least two places, and just moving it hurt. She had trouble breathing, and a couple of broken ribs. Aside from the piece of shrapnel the size of her arm lodged in her right leg, she considered she was fine. However the piece of junk was going to cause trouble, and she would have to get it out ASAP. Which meant now. She winced as she got up to inspect the damage to her leg. It didn't look too nice, though that didn't mean much. _Lots of blood usually means surface wounds. Little to no blood, start worrying._ She braced against the rock, and pulled the shrapnel out. It came loose pretty easy, and the wound wasn't deep. She tore off a piece of her sleeve and bound it around the wound as tight as she could without cutting off blood circulation. _Not a very permanent solution, but it'll have to do. _She reached into her utility belt to check if Gayiyla was still with her. The datachip didn't seem damaged, but that didn't mean much.

She realized she was pretty damned lucky to be alive. The shockwave had thrown her far enough to be safe from the explosion, but it wasn't everyday she hit trees with terminal velocity. It seemed the trees weren't hit like that everyday either. Shadow suppressed a grin as she saw the path of destruction she'd left. In a straight line of at least 2 kilometers, all the trees were cut down. _A new record._ She got up, testing her leg by putting a little pressure on it. Once she was sure she could stand on it, she looked around, looking for her weapon. Spotting it lying behind the big rock, She grabbed it, pulling the magazine lock with a satisfying _click_. Inspection showed it was still intact, something for which she was grateful. Plenty of rocks around to smash covenant skulls, but they'd be far to heavy if she had to carry one for each alien. She made her way back to the clearing that had once been crawling with covenant.

Only, she realized, there wasn't a clearing left. The whole place was one massive crater, littered with the remains of covenant bodies. _The three D's. Destruction, Demolition, Death. _She grinned as she remembered those words. Very fitting. She knew she had a long hike ahead of her, so she set out in the general direction of _The Hole_.

XXX

The moment she got near the tree line, Shadow knew the base had been abandoned. The fact that the ground was littered with covenant bodies gave her a pretty good idea why. With a sadness she noticed the occasion green of a UNSC uniform between the multicolored aliens. However there were too few human bodies to account for everyone, which meant there were survivors. She sprinted across the open terrain and into the mountain. By the time she reached the main chamber, her leg was protesting heavily against the stress.

The main chamber was as empty as it had been when they'd first arrived a few days ago. Shadow figured they must've packed everything in the Pelicans and gone out on foot. The Covenant were no doubt hunting for them, and anything with an engine generated heat and noise. The rain would've probably covered their tracks, and she doubted they'd left clues to help her track them. She was very much aware of the fact that they probably though she was dead. _Not yet._ She noticed a small piece of disturbed sand in the middle of the chamber. On further inspection, it turned out there was an _S_ written in the sand. Shadow grinned. Subtle but obvious. She sat down to give her leg some much needed rest, and shoved some of the sand aside. Underneath, a small green box appeared. Inside was a canister of biofoam, a small bottle of disinfectant, some bandages, a bottle of water, an MRE, a loaded M6D and a note. She pulled the wrappings off her leg and injected some of the biofoam into the wound. Even though it felt like there were a thousand very angry red ants crawling through her legs, it still felt like the best thing in days. She bound a piece of the bandage around her leg, then inserted some of the biofoam into her arm. The ants were back again, but she could also feel it mending her broken bones. She wrapped another piece of bandage around her arm, replacing the sleeve she'd torn off. The white was too conspicuous however, so she poured some of the water into the mixture of sand and ash on the ground, then smeared the stuff over the bandages. Because neither of the wounds were open now, she could safely do so without risking infections.

She drank the rest of the water after she'd ate the MRE. Saving the water for later wouldn't do her much good, it was better to drink as much as possible at once then small bits over a long period. That risked dehydration, and that was a problem she wasn't equipped to deal with now. Saving the rest of the foam disinfectant and bandages was a much smarter thing to do, so she stuffed them in her pockets and belt, then grabbed the note.

_Base compromised, moving out on foot.  
__Considered KIA, think otherwise.  
__Patch up, fuel up, follow signs.  
__Be safe,  
__Sanders._

Shadow smiled as she got up. _Thanks private. _Time for a game of hide and seek. Hide from the covenant, seek the signs. This was something she was used to doing.

XXX

The first sign was a covenant corpse, laid out like and arrow. The next, a line of rocks. Next up were a carving in a rock and a burned piece of wood. Half a day had passed, but she was making good progress. By the time she reached the twelfth clearing, she found a piece of paper. The handwriting was hard to read and fast done, but it contained only one word. It was enough.

_Captured._

She shot off in the direction of the structures she'd spotted from orbit. Since that was most likely where the covenant had set up camp, it was the suspected location they would bring their prisoners. She slipped through the woods as fast as she could, hoping to catch up with them before they reached the camp. The covenant and their prisoners had too much of a head start however, and by the time she reached the camp, it was dark and the UNSC personnel was locked away safely in a makeshift prison cell.

They didn't seem very busy watching the outside of the camp, not expecting there to be any more humans on the planet. The UNSC personnel didn't seem to expect help either, and they all sat quietly doing nothing about their situation. The only one looking around the camp was Sanders, but the man didn't have a very hopeful look on his face either. Perhaps because there were no lights in the camp besides a small campfire on the other side. Shadow slipped between a stack of crates, invisible to the naked by because of her black outfit. It was too dark for the grunts and jackals to see anything, but she saw everything as clear as day. Looking around the camp, she started to work on a way to get the crew out.

XXX

"Not again." Sanders moaned as they were thrown into a makeshift holding cell. The thing looked more like a giant box, but it served its purpose just fine. It was getting dark outside, and he figured there was nothing left for them to do but sit down and wait for a chance to escape.

"Stop complaining." Lyran shot at him, annoyed. The woman was trying to get some sleep as soon as she sat down, and Sanders had just woken her up. "At least we're alive."

"For now. Once they start testing that virus on us we won't be around much longer." Sinns interjected. Everyone feel silent, thinking.

Soon, it was entirely dark around the camp. They'd set up a small schedule, letting everyone safe two people sleep. Just in case. Right now, the ones awake were Lyran and Dallas, much to the female sergeant's chagrin. She'd been asleep, and they'd woken her up to stand guard. They were supposed to be acting like normal, so they'd started arguing. Sinns had very soon had enough of that, telling them to go fight it out. _But_ _silently!_. So now they were seated on the ground, playing tic-tac-toe in the sand on the floor. Dallas swore as Lyran scored another point.

"Hey, what's that?"

"I'm not falling for that one." Lyran told him, drawing a cross in the center square.

"No, I mean it. Look." He pointed at a small light flashing in a repeated rhythm.

"It's a light Jack." _Idiot…. Hey. Wait a second…._ "That's not a random pattern. It's Morse-code!" Dallas snorted and muttered something along the lines of _I told you so._ "T-H-U-N-D-E-R. Thunder…. My god. Do we have a light?" Dallas checked his pockets while Lyran woke the rest of the crew up. He handed her a small lighter. She stared at it, then shrugged.

"Mind explaining what you're doing? " Sinns said.

"It's an ancient identification signal. Let me flash back." Lyran flashed back the word Lightning, and the other light vanished. "My father once told me about it. But, there aren't many people who still know Morse, let alone an ancient codeword. Private, you may very well be right. lets wait and see what happens." The explosion of a grenade sounded on the other side of the camp, followed by the sound of fire from an M6D. The covenant ran over to the location of the sound as a shadow shot past behind them towards the prison cell. The elite guarding it dropped dead to the floor and was relieved of his keys.

The navy crew got up, confused. Sanders was grinning, whispered a 'Told ya._'_ to Dallas and got up from where he was sitting. The fence slid open, and they got out.

"If they'd used their own tech, this wouldn't have been as easy."

"Shadow?"

"Yes. Hurry up, before they find out that gun is firing on it's own."

"That's twice I owe ya." Sanders said as they rushed into the woods.

They were back to running from the covenant. As soon as they'd reached the tree line, The pistol stopped firing. Sanders could hear the covenant coming after them, and ran a little faster. They had to find a way off this planet, fast. Shadow seemed to know where she was going. Nobody seemed to care where that was, as long as it wasn't anywhere near the covenant.

They soon reached a waterfall. Shadow dived into the water, leaving a confused crew behind.

"Keep moving!"

Sander shrugged, and jumped in. Lyran and Dallas stared for a moment, then dived in. As it turned out, there was a large cave behind the waterfall. The covenant didn't seem to know about it, as they ran past without even looking. Relieved, everyone sat down. At least they had a safe location for the moment, a chance to come up with some way to get off this world.

Ensign Hogen was sitting on a small rock, silent for a moment. When she spoke up, it wasn't what they expected to hear.

"Well done Spartan. I had not expected you to survive. I see our money was not wasted."

**TBC… What, not expecting a cliffhanger? Muhahahahah**


	11. A Way Out

**A/N: Wow. That was hell. I really had trouble with this one. But, the first part is over… Now comes the tricky part. Because now I'm going to have to get into the mess of the annoyingness (that's really a word? O_O) of intelligence agencies. Crap. I hate those. About as much as I hate writing NPC's. Which I fear I might not be able to avoid this time around… Well, moving on now. Hope you guys liked the first part. **

**Sorry for the delayed update guys. I hit a massive block with this one. But i have plenty of ideas for a next part! :) **

**Jakster02:** Sorry for the slow update, hope you like it! :)

* * *

17 November 2525  
Seron, Sera System  
Groundside, current position: unknown

"_Well done Spartan. I had not expected you to survive. I see our money was not wasted." _

Three guns were instantly raised. A fourth one a second later. Shadow blinked. The situation had just gone from bad to terribly annoying. _What is it this time?_ Was the first thing that came to mind as Shadow watched the captain, the two sergeants and, following suit, private Sanders pointed the weapons at the ensign sitting on the rock. Weapons they'd stolen from a covenant supply crate in the camp they'd just escaped from. Weapons raised, safety pall off.

The rest of the crew just looked confused. Shadow knew Sanders didn't have a clue at what was going on either, but he seemed to pick up pretty fast that this wasn't a good thing.

"Put your gun down captain. I am not your enemy." Sinns didn't look convinced, just pissed as he tightened the grip on his plasma pistol.

"You shouldn't know that. Nobody outside the command crew should know that. You're Sullers' contact, aren't you." Dallas wasn't asking a question.

"Unfortunate as the incident with Miss Sullers may have been, I assure you, I am not her associate. How she slipped through our security remains a mystery, while attempting to set it right didn't go as it should have." The shot wound in her leg didn't seem to have healed yet.

"That doesn't explain where you learned to speak Covenant."

"That is none of your concern captain. All you need to know is that I am neither working for the Covenant nor the Insurrectionists."

"So who the hell are you?" Lyran asked.

"That is not important…-"

"The hell it isn't!" Dallas shouted. Helljumpers weren't known for their patience… and his had just left the planet in a hurry. "I say we kill her and get the hell outta here before the covenant show up." He pointed the plasma rifle at her face. "Say bye bye!" Hogen looked horrified as she backed away from the gun.

"Stand down!" Shadow said as she stepped forward. Much to the sergeant's chagrin, she put her hand on the rifle, lowering it. _This is insane…_

"Fine" The man growled. "You kill her then."

Shadow ignored him as she focused on Hogen. "Out with it. We don't have time to play ONI's games."

"How did you guess?" Hogen asked, surprised. Shadow shrugged.

"You know everything you shouldn't and you speak Covenant. I was taught how to count one plus one. You're ONI. I'm guessing Section Three." The look on Sanders' face was priceless, but she ignored it. "So, what's a spook doing on a battlefield? Did ONI want a field report or were you just growing bored at seeing a desk every morning?"

"How did you survive a nuclear explosion?"

"Ask your superiors if you really want to know." Shadow blinked, annoyed.

"Forget I asked. Where's the AI?" Shadow pulled out Gayiyla's datachip and tossed it to Hogen.

"Here. Now answer the question. What are you doing here?"

"What I am doing here is need to know. Which you don't."

"We're stuck on an alien world with the Covenant chasing us. Everything that may become a problem, I need to know. Unless you'd prefer to stay here for the rest of your life and have lunch with the alien army that's going to knock on our door pretty soon." _Why can't things ever be simple?_

"That information is classified and--."

"Don't give me that crap. Everything we're doing here is classified. Heck, _I'm_ classified, if we want to get into this. So don't even get started on that. Out with it or you can explain classified to the wrong end of my rifle." Shadow tapped the BR55 still slung around her shoulder. The gesture seemed convincing enough. "You know who and what I am. You know I won't miss. Thank your superiors for that." Dallas seemed to find the comment Shadow added funny, as he snickered. Lyran game him a whack on the back of his head accompanied by a whispered "_shut up."_

Hogen stuttered in protest. When Shadow clicked the safety off, Hogen swallowed and she took a deep breath. "I was send here to evaluate you." Shadow snorted.

"Figures. Typical of ONI to put everyone at risk just because a field report of 3 people isn't enough. So, do I get bonus points for busting your ass out of that prison? Or do I have to save you from the Covenant again for that?"

"This is not a joke!" Hogen protested.

"No. It's not. Though I'm not sure ONI has realized that. So shut up and let those who know what they're doing do their job. Ma'am." Shadow walked away before Hogen could answer. _Damn spooks…_ She thought to herself. She could hear someone run after her, probably Sanders. _Sinns can go hear her out on everything. We need a way out of here. _The cave seemed to go deeper and deeper into the mountain. One of the Helljumpers posted at the temporary perimeter nodded at her as she walked past. By the time she'd gotten out of sight from the guards, the person following her had caught up. The man grunted in annoyance as he turned on a flashlight. Shadow ignored him and kept walking.

XXX

The cave system leading deep into the mountains was a lot larger then she's initially thought. The caves seemed to go on forever; though the air was getting colder the farther the tunnels went. The walls and floor were covered in fungus, giving the air a musk smell. The floor was slippery as ice, and, judging from the swearing, not to everyone's liking.

"Can we just stop for a moment?!" Sanders voice called out from behind the flashlight. Shadow ignored him as she stepped over a large puddle of water. Sanders was less fortunate as he completely soaked his boot when he stepped into it. Shadow could've sworn they could hear his swearing all the way on Earth. "How can you even see where we're going?! At least turn on a damn flashlight!" He was ignored.

As the caves went further down into the mountain, Shadow picked up the sound of rushing water. _A river?_ She picked up the pace, intent on finding the river. A river meant the possibility of a way outside. The marine behind her wasn't too happy she started walking even faster though.

"Can ya just STOP for one goddamn second?!" By now, Sanders was running to keep up with her. Shadow stopped and turned around.

"Two minutes." Sanders sighed in relieve and sank down onto the floor.

"What was that all about just now?" He grabbed a bottle of water and took a large swing. "Because I've never even _seen_ a spook before. Somethin' is definitely goin' on if ONI sends a spook to, what was it again? 'Evaluate you'?" He watched as Shadow sat down in annoyance over the whole situation.

"How many times do I have to tell you I _can't_ tell you before you_ shut up_ about it?" She snapped at him. Sanders blinked, took one more sip and got up.

"Hey, I was only tryin' to help. No need to bite my head off ya know." Shadow rolled her eyes and got up. The marine grunted as he checked his watch.

"Time's up. Get moving or stay here."

"Ya're no fun like this."

"Welcome to reality."

They'd walked for another half hour when they found a large river flowing straight through the mountain. The river was too deep to walk, and the undertow would be too strong for it anyway. But the path running alongside it seemed solid enough to walk on.

"This path isn't natural, it's artificial. Someone made it a long time ago." Shadow said as she took a few cautious steps. "Solid enough." She tapped her comm. "Captain, we have a way out."

_"Where the hell have you been?"_

"Exploring the caves. Sanders and I found a river with a convenient path running alongside it. That water has to go outside somewhere."

_"Tell us where to go."_

"Just follow the only cave there is. It's a two hour walk, so you'd better get started."

"Two hours in _her_ walking speed, that is." Sanders piped up.

_"We're on our way."_

XXX

"That's an absolutely stupid idea!"

Shadow grinned as Sanders protested with her plan to do a frontal assault of the covenant base they were overlooking. Lyran sympathetically patted his shoulder.

"You'll get over it private."

"You want to get home?" Sanders grumbled at the captain's question.

"I wanna get back to UNSC controlled space, yeah."

"Then shut up and do as she says."

Said 'plan' was to charge at the base nested into the side of the small hill they were looking at. Hogen had protested, but the group of 5 Helljumpers and 4 marines still alive, both sergeants included, had cheered at the chance to strike back at the Covenant. The ship's crew was not so enthusiastic at the idea. Granted, they weren't used to ground assaults. So they were going to remain hidden while the rest charged at the camp.

Shadow knew that in a way, Sanders was right. It was risky. But there was no point in running from the Covenant on this planet for what could be the rest of their lives. They had to get a distress call out, or in the very least get the information they'd gathered back to the UNSC. Right now, the Covenant weren't expecting them to attack. They had the element of surprise. Only a complete idiot would let that be wasted. Shadow grinned. _I'm crazy, but I'm not an idiot._

As soon as everyone had checked their ammo, they moved out. By now, the night was setting in. Using the sun as cover, they were attacking from the east to keep the sun in their backs and in the eyes of the covenant. With a little luck, the sun would blind them, giving the humans a much needed advantage. Shadow slammed a new magazine in her rifle. "Move out!"

The group of 5 Helljumpers, 4 marines, an ONI spook and a Spartan-II made their way over to the trees nearest to the encampment. Shadow motioned everyone to hide as she slipped between a pair of bushes behind an elite standing guard. She pulled a knife out of her boot, took a deep breath and stepped forward. The elite was either stupid or deaf, as it didn't notice a thing. The knife that slid his throat open was soundless as it forever silenced the elite. It sank to the ground, dead.

Shadow confiscated its weapons and grenades, and then passed them on to the rest of the group. A pair of oblivious grunts were asleep next to a couple of supply crates. Their deaths were just as soundless.

Slowly but steadily, the group advanced. Reaching the nearest set of buildings, they took cover as Shadow scanned the camp.

_"__Only 12 elites, 20 grunts and 8 jackals." _Shadow whispered to the rest.

"_Only" _Came a marine's sarcastic reply. She ignored him.

"_Focus your attacks on the elites. They're the biggest threats. Two or three people take care of the grunts and jackals. Sergeant Dallas, you and your men guard our spook. Secure the communications array. Sergeant Lyran, keep the covenant busy. Private Sanders, you're with me."_

_"Who, me? Where are we going?" _He asked.

_"To get a sample of that virus." _

By the time they reached what Shadow guessed was the lab, The Helljumpers were happily being a pain in the ass for the guards posted at the communications building. She could hear their comments over the comm., ranging from cheers to explicit curses and names. Lyran and Dallas seemed to be holding a game of who-has-the-most-kills, even though they couldn't possibly check each others results. Still, it was better then panicking, so she let it slide.

The building itself wasn't much. A large block of grey material with a black automatic door. The sign on it looked a lot like what Hogen had described as the Covenant word for lab, or what she though was the word for lab. Sanders pulled out a grenade. Shadow stared at him.

_"What?" _He asked.

_"You're going to throw a grenade into a biohazard lab?" _

_"Oh, right." _He put the thing away, smiling sheepishly. Shadow shook her head, and stepped into the door's sensor area. The doors swooshed open.

She expected a hail of weapons fire to greet them, but when nothing happened, she poked her head around the door. It was definitely a lab, and it was completely deserted. Sanders asked where they'd all gone, and Shadow shrugged. She stepped inside; looking around for what could be a sample of that virus.

The large sealed purple container on the table in the middle seemed like a safe bet. She walked over to it. The sign on the box seemed like a warning sign, so she figured this was the stuff. To be sure she ran a scan over it, checking the traces. Satisfied that it was a match, she grabbed the box and motioned Sanders to head back to the door. Grateful to get out of the lab, the marine shot back out the door. Shadow followed him out, scanning the area.

The battle itself was already over. Lyran poked a dead elite with the tip of her boot, making sure it was dead. IT didn't look like anyone was injured, safe for Sergeant Dallas, who seemed to have a bruise the size of a human fist on his right eye. Judging by the look he gave Lyran, it was pretty obvious the covenant weren't the ones responsible for it. She figured he probably lost, and brushed it aside.

Hogen came out, reporting that they'd send the message before confiscating the container Shadow had been holding. Sanders was about to protest, until he realized pissing off a spook was a bad idea.

Either the covenant had lost interest, or there weren't any around, but the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. After they'd brought over the navy crew, they'd dug in, gratefully making use of the already established defenses. Shadow had rigged a few grenades to serve as trip mines, laying them out in a pattern around the camp to serve as alarms.

A week had passed, filled with an occasional batch of covenant trying to retake the base, when an announcement from Hogen broke through the sounds of the group playing cards. FleetComm had already sent a ship to pick them up; it would arrive within a day. Either too tired to respond, or just too busy with their cards game, the men didn't react that much too the news besides a small cheer.

Sanders was bugging Shadow to learn how to play cards, something she promptly refused to do. But the man was simply too stubborn or too stupid, because he wouldn't give up. Eventually she shoved a gun under his nose. Shocked, he gave up and went over to join the others.

When they were picked up, they were all a bit amazed to find out there weren't any covenant ships in orbit, however nobody gave it much thought. The trip back would take about a week, but nobody complained about it. Pretty soon the marines and Helljumpers were fighting over who was first in line to get food from the mess hall, each group led by their respective sergeants. Shadow stifled a laugh when Lyran got a piece of apple-pie in her face, then quickly ducked to avoid a piece of carrot that had been turned into a projectile. Deciding this wasn't her fight, she bugged out to get some sleep. Before she was out, Sanders had aimed an apple at her, which she caught without turning.

She gave a wave in thanks as she slipped through the door, causing the marine to pause. Now he'd lost his only weapon. Something he was cutely reminded of the moment a pudding hit his face full on.

Captain Sinns, who was on his way to get something to eat as well, immediately reconsidered to have his food in the officers mess the moment Shadow warned him of the food fight. He muttered something along the lines of 'misbehavior' 'children' and 'health regulations', but didn't go to stop them. Shadow figured he'd get them for it by assigning them all to cleaning duty. She grinned at the thought of them cleaning the mess hall with a toothbrush.

That would be a sight to watch…

**End of first part. :D **


	12. Part II: 1 Insertion

**A/N: What? No reviews? Hmpf. And I worked so hard to get 11 done. Ah well.  
At any rate, here's Part II. New events, new year and new characters.. well, aside from the main one. Don't worry, the old ones will be back later on.  
Read and Review! Especially the latter!! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo (wish i did), those 360-whores over at Bungie and Micro$hit do. Yeah i am once more pissed off about the whole "no pc" bullshit. The only rts ever i would happily play wihtout hanging myself, and i have to dodge taxes and health insurances first to pay 400 bucks just to buy the goddamn console. And then another 80 for a plastic disk. Go to hell assholes. You don't have to expect a friendly word from me. I'd much sooner slowly kill myself. **

**Such rants about how much i hate those shitheads always makes me feel better. **

**Enjoy the chapter! And if you spot errors, lemme know. **

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-Part II: Undercover.-

**29**** June 2529  
****City of Houston, Texas,  
****Earth****.**

The outskirts of Houston are not a nice place to live. Centuries ago, there'd been nothing wrong with it. But in the 26th century, the city had expanded, adding numerous neighborhoods to it. One particular part on the north east side was a heaven for gangs, criminals and other outlaws. Most of the people living there couldn't afford to move. They made their living running small businesses at home, and usually kept off the streets. Since the war with the covenant broke out, there weren't any spare forces to keep the streets safe as all possible personnel was redirected to the front. Before The war, it'd already been a place of trouble that gave the UNSC a headache. With it's numerous gangs and criminals, the insurrectionists had found it to be a great place to hide. Which was what had the top brass worried.

Beneath a factory in the middle of the area was a large facility. More precise, the facility was a shelter, providing important people with a place of refuge in the event of an attack. For the moment, with Earth still being safe from the covenant, it had been repurposed. A meeting between the representatives of the United Nations and the commanding officers of the UNSCDF was scheduled to take place there on the 20th of July. However, the history of the area had been providing them with plenty of things to worry about.

Being in charge of the safety of the people involved, Fleet Admiral Alec Thomason wasn't too happy with the location that had been picked. Even though ONI's send out several people to seal off the site, it didn't mean nothing could happen. In this case there was no such thing as too cautious. And so he'd taken the initiative to send an agent undercover, three weeks prior to the event, to do some thorough digging among the locals. So far they'd gained a lot of information as to the local gangs, but nothing useful.

The admiral had assigned SPARTAN-II Shadow-012 to go undercover to investigate, much to the chagrin of the young woman. The fact that she'd be free of ONI for a few weeks was enough to persuade her.

Four years had passed since the mission involving the covenant-created virus. Upon their return, Shadow had both planned and expected to be send back to Reach. The Office Of Naval Intelligence had had different ideas about that. They'd forbidden her to go back, and instead offered her to work directly for them. Not interested in being their puppet, she had politely refused. She'd expected them to be disappointed, or perhaps angry, but she'd never expected them to actually try to kill her.

ONI must've been really keen on getting their way. She'd killed the two officers in self-defence, and ran off. Halfway through the base, she'd literally crashed into a Fleet Admiral who'd been on his way to the officers mess. She'd very nearly shot him as well. Instead, he'd offered her to keep ONI off her back, in exchange for working directly for him. She hadn't been too sure about doing so, but the other option didn't sound very interesting either. If she'd know she'd end up as a civilian, she'd have thought twice about it.

It was mid summer, with temperatures constantly staying above 28 degrees Celsius. People had all sought refuge from the heat indoors, with their air conditioners turned up high. The streets were completely deserted, safe for the fit young woman clad in dark blue jeans and a black tank top. Shoulder length brown hair let down, she looked like any other person from the distance. Up close however, it was evident she wasn't a random civilian. She wasn't extremely tall, perhaps 1.80 meters at most, but she was taller then most people that lived in these parts. The pair of mirrorshades she wore hid her eyes, making it impossible to tell what she was looking at. Like any sensible person these days, she wore a holster with a pistol on her right thigh. A black backpack was slung across her left shoulder, leaving her right hand free to reach for her sidearm in case she would need it.

That wasn't what made anyone think twice about where she came from, however. She was far too fit, well fed and muscular to have lived all her life in these slums, and her skin showed multiple deep scars that were more common among soldiers then civilians. Not beautiful enough to win a miss-universe competition, but pretty enough to draw quite a few stares and whistles at the airport. Her figure was obviously well honed, but didn't tell anything about the real and dangerous secret of her past.

Walking across the deserted street, Spartan-II Shadow-012, now just Shadow, reflected that she really didn't want to be here. An ambush in the middle of covenant territory? Fine. Prisoner on one of their ships? Didn't matter either, but as a civilian in the middle of a city with no specific orders? She didn't even know where to start. The admiral had been clear.

_Find out if there's any threat. If there is, stop them._

She resisted the urge to laugh as she turned the corner. _I don't think this was what ONI had in mind years ago…_ She sighed. With this war going south as it was, she didn't know what the hell she was doing in this place, instead of on the front lines. _Waste of resources._ Still, orders were orders.

She chewed on how to start the mission for a moment. "I need a job." That made her blink. "This is ridiculous." She stopped at what appeared to be the local post office. Several bright colored posters adorned the window, advertising jobs. _That was easy._ She glanced over them, looking for anything useful.

"_Wanted: Housekeeper. Tasks include: cleaning, dusting, cooking. For more information, call the number below". _"I can't cook…"

"_Are you __looking for adventure? Action? A chance to see other worlds? To see space? Join the Marines now!" _"Yeah, that'll work…"

"_Need extra money? Not scared of a little dirty work? A flexible person? Nasty Nash seeks prostitutes" _"…" "What?" "I don't think so."

"_Steffa's Barbershop seeks barbers!" _"Bad idea."

"_I'm looking for someone who isn't afraid, willing to take some risks and knows how to fight. For more, visit Clankers Jankers Repair Shop." _"That sounds better."

"_Sought: Receptionist, Hostess. Allday Star Hotel.__ Are you kind, friendly and full of hospitality? Pay us a visit!" _"Never mind."

The list ended there. Shadow sighed and grabbed a PDA from her pocket. She fired up a local search and went looking for the exact location of _Clankers Jankers Repair Shop._ As it turned out, it was just two blocks out.

Sitting in a back alley, _Clankers Jankers Repair Shop _was just a short walk from the main road. From the outside, it looked like any normal mechanics shop with a large sign, a garage door, several parked cars outside and a load of scrap materials scattered around the entrance. The main entrance was a large blue door with an Open/Close sign hanging on the inside of the window. Currently, the Open part was shown, which Shadow assumed meant they were open for business. She pushed open the door and walked in. The moment she stepped inside, she was hit by a wave of cold air. The air smelled like oil, rust and burned metal, exactly what you'd expect from a place like this. Inside the garage were several cars, a warthog and a couple of bikes. Along the walls were several pallet racks filled with tools, spare parts, tags and what looked like a large collection of colorful wrappings. Several pallets, crates and boxes littered the area, and the oil smears on the floor explained the smell. Taking in the place with a single look, she decided it was safer to just let someone know she was there. The irony hit her as she thought that would normally be the stupidest thing to do.

"Hello?" She asked over the noise the large air conditioner unit in the far left corner was making. A scraping noise followed by a loud clanging made her reach for her sidearm, but she caught herself. A rough voice called out in a string of colorful language. He coughed, then spoke again.

"Yeah? What do you want?"

"I'm here for the job." More scraping noises, followed by even more clanging from what she assumed were tools falling on the ground.

An elderly man, well in his fifties, limped around a parked warthog. Shadow took in his appearance in a quick glance. His hair was grey, cut short in what Shadow immediately recognized as military buzz cut. The man had a heavy build, but it looked like he's slacked in his exercises the last few years. Shadow spotted that he was limping slightly, walking more on his right leg. His face and arms were covered in grease, but not as much as his clothes. The dark blue overall he was wearing was more black then blue, and his brown boots were an identical color. He was holding a wrench in one hand, looking mildly suspicious. When he saw Shadow, he looked her over a few times, grunted and walked away again.

"Get lost." Shadow blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"Look missy, I'm looking for someone who can fight, who can protect my granddaughter from the local gangs, not a catwalk model. You're in the wrong part of town for that." He disappeared behind the warthog. Mildly annoyed, Shadow followed after him.

"You're not even giving me a chance to prove it." Shadow crossed her arms. This was just ridiculous. All the more, she just wanted to go home, back to the front lines where she didn't have to prove herself. She stomped the thoughts down and focused back on the task at hand. "I can fight."

"Sure you do girly. Why don't you go back to school and get a better life, and leave old bill to fend for to himself. " It wasn't a question. Shadow ignored the 'girly' comment, not moving an inch from where she stood. The man, Bill, reached up and grabbed a different tool. Shadow spotted the tattoo on his arm.

"You're a marine?" She asked.

"Was. Honorably discharged after an Innie grenade blew off my leg."

"Oh. I'm sorry." She smiled slightly. In a 20 clicks radius she'd managed to find the only person who didn't hate the UNSC. Maybe things would work out all right after all. "Look, let me prove I can fight."

"What makes you think you can?"

"Born on a transport freighter. Pirate attack killed my folks, and I was raised by my uncle. He was a marine. Taught me everything he knew." They'd fabricated the story that she'd been born on a transport freighter, to give an explanation for her lack of knowledge on common day things. Her parents had been killed shortly after she was born in a pirate raid, and so she'd been raised by her marine uncle. This way she'd have a credible explanation for her combat skills and scars. It was a simple, but effective explanation.

Before Bill could reply, the garage door exploded inward. Shadow stepped between Bill and the door, mildly surprised when a pickup drove straight through the door and into the garage. Shadow had drawn her sidearm before she realized this wasn't supposed to happen, aiming at the large black pickup truck that drove in. Eight rough looking men jumped out, armed with pistols, shotguns, clubs and knifes. One of them, wearing what Shadow identified as a cowboy hat, cocked his shotgun, grinning. He stepped forward, gave the warthog Bill had been working on a large kick as he walked past it. Shadow, who was standing between Bill and cowboy hat, didn't move as she clicked the safety off her pistol. Cowboy hat grinned.

"Who's this Janson? Your latest employee? You remember what we did to the last lady you hired to protect your little girl from us?" Shadow just gave him a blank stare.

"Leave her out of this."

"What would that be?" Shadow asked. Maybe this job wouldn't be so boring after all.

"Nash don't. Wasn't it enough that you and your gang raped Jessica?! You killed her! I don't even know this girl! She just walked in here a few minutes ago." Shadow resisted the urge to sigh. Noticing the tremor in Bill's voice, she realized he was afraid of this man. _Nash? 'Nasty Nash' from that advertisement?_ _Hm._ She filed that bit of information away for later. Shadow decided she's see where this went. Obviously this Nash figure was not the kind of guy anyone would want around. She also recalled Bill mentioning crime gangs. If this guy led one, he was on her suspect list. Still, if that was what had happened to Bill's previous employee, she wasn't about to play victim and go along with it.

"What's your name pretty?" Shadow trained her gun between his eyes the moment he took another step towards her.

"Need to know. And you don't." Nash laughed. She took in the whole situation in a flash. Three of the guys had taken up position behind her, she didn't need to turn around to know they had their weapons raised. Two more had moved up to the left, guns trained on her. Another two stood next to Bill, one keeping him under shot, and the other watching the show. Nash was the only one up front, but his shotgun proved a nasty problem. She recognized it as a standard issue M90 CAWS, and wondered where he'd gotten it. _Probably stole it._

Annoyed, she realized she'd have to fight them. Blinking once she gave a slight smile, which only seemed to fuel Nash's actions. When he took another step, she dropped into a combat stance. Nash laughed.

"Feisty. Don't worry, we'll teach you obedience." Shadow resisted a snort. This guy was a waste of ammo. Did he even know how to use that shotgun? A funny image with the guy holding the shotgun backwards and firing it entered her mind, but she slapped it down. She blinked and gave him a blank stare, it's effect lost because of the mirrorshades she still wore.

"What makes you think I'll play sad little victim and let you have your way?" tightening the grip on her pistol for effect, she waited for an answer.

"You're no match for me." Musing that this guy wouldn't have been a match for _her_ years ago, she gave a small grin.

"Depends. Are you hiding four mandibles and a plasma sword under that?" That got her a surprised look from Bill, but she didn't see it.

Bill made an attempt to reach the wrench he had dropped. One of Nash's bullies stepped on his arm, kicking the wrench away with the other. The man cried out in pain, and Shadow could hear his bones snap.

"You've got too big a mouth girl. Maybe I should shut it. Lets see if you're better then the last girl. All she did was scream and beg." Shadow knew showing what she was capable of now was a waste of advantages. She realized the best strategy right now was to let him think she was acting tough. That wasn't hard to do. The hard part was surprising her reflexes as Nash took a swing at her.

His backhand slap knocked off her sunglasses. She didn't make a sound as she wiped a small trace of blood from her cheek. Nash, obviously not happy that he didn't get a reaction, grabbed her wrist, slammed it against the frame of the warthog and grabbed the pistol Shadow had dropped on purpose. _I'm a good scared little civvie… I will not kick his ass to Reach and back… I will just play along… this is ridiculous…_ Shadow kept reminding herself as she kept up the act of a scared girl. Nash was growing ever more irritated of the lack of reaction.

When he kicked her in the knees, she feinted to be hurt and let gravity drop her to the floor. Still keeping a firm grasp on her writs, he twisted her arm in an unnatural angle. Shadow knew he couldn't break it, but that would be trouble. She pretended a cry of pain, which made Nash smile.

"Better." He used his foot to pin her to the floor. Shadow resisted the urge to roll her eyes as Nash leaned down. "Now be nice and stop resisting."

"Give me one good reason."

"You're unarmed, surrounded and you're a girl. What're you gonna do, squeal at me?" His cohorts laughed, and Bill grunted in pain.

"Nope. Point out a flaw in your reasoning. What makes you think I'm unarmed?" In response, Nash waved the pistol he'd taken from her. The other gang members made jokes about acting all tough, but Shadow ignored them.

"Got your gun right here missy. If you're hiding another one somewhere under there, we'll find out soon enough." More laughter and snickers from the rest. Shadow grinned. "Now be still, while I look for more weapons." The man smirked, and Shadow gave an annoyed sigh.

"Well, it's been fun, but I can't let you do that."

"You're unarmed girly. Don't fight and I'll let you live."

"I still have my fists." Flashing a grin, she slammed her fist directly under his chin, leaping up the moment Nash was distracted. The man snarled in anger as he got back up, grabbing his shotgun from the floor. Shadow dropped into a combat stance, fists raised. Knowing that dodging the shotgun shells would be tricky she took the initiative. Before Nash had a chance to retaliate, Shadow jumped. In mid air, she swung her leg around in a roundhouse kick to his head. Nash was flung sideways a couple of meters as Shadow landed on the ground and rolled to grab the shotgun the man had dropped. Nash got back up groggily, looking around in confusion. Shadow grabbed his head, bend him down and brought her knee up in his face.

Nash doubled over, crying out as the woman brought her elbow down between his shoulder blades. Not giving up yet, he got back up, lunched forward with a knife he'd pulled out of his pocket. Shadow had pulled her own out of her sleeve, and slammed it into his shoulder. Nash screamed in anger, only to receive an open handed punch to his chest. He flew backwards, hitting the wall. He started to get up again as Shadow showed up armed with the shotgun.

"Get up. And tell your friends to back down." Nash spit out two teeth, crawling to his feet. He was clutching his chest. The intensely alert look in the young woman's eyes made him flinch. With his left hand, he waved off his gang members.

"You're not from around here. Those army dickheads send you? You're a stinkin' soldier, aren't you?" Shadow gave him an angry look.

"Born and raised on a transport freighter traveling through pirate territory. I don't care how tough you think you are. Compared to what I've seen out there, you're as scary as a grunt wielding a toothbrush. If you ever try that again, I'll show you what I did to the last piece of Innie scum that tried that. Next time you pick a fight, grow some brains, learn to fight and get some honor. Now get out of here, you're trespassing."

"This isn't over." Nash moved towards the door, closely followed by his cohorts. Bill grunted, and Shadow rushed over to help him up the moment Nash's buddies had walked out. She'd laid the shotgun on the seat of the warthog, and hauled Bill off the ground. He was staring at her in shock. "You can keep the shotgun, I don't doubt those guys will be back, and cowboy hat dropped my pistol." Bill nodded at her as he leaned against the frame. Shadow picked up her pistol from where Nash had dropped it, gathering her backpack from the floor on the way back.

"You're hired. Sorry I said you couldn't fight. Where'd you learn that?"

"Told you, my uncle." Bill nodded. He motioned her towards the door to the back of the garage. Shadow helped him walk, making their way across the garage and into what appeared to be a living room. Bill sat down on the couch as Shadow got him a glass of water.

"Why'd you do that? He would've killed you!" From her place where she was rummaging through the cabinets, Shadow shrugged.

"Because he had no good reason, he was a threat and we're on the same side." Bill was silent. Shadow finally found a glass, and poured some water in it.

"Same side? I don't even know you." Setting the glass down, Shadow motioned for the tattoo on the man's arm. "You're..-" Shadow cut him off mid sentence.

"I don't know who I can trust. And if there's anything I've learned, it's that those spooks are everywhere. 'Walls have ears' I believe the saying goes." Bill nodded as he took a sip of water.

"The meeting."

"Yes."

"Black-Ops?" The man asked from behind his glass.

"Need to know." Bill apologized for asking as Shadow clicked the safety back on her pistol and holstered it. "All right, that's par tone, now I just need to find myself a place t stay and I can get this show on the road. So, you mentioned protecting your granddaughter."

"Her name's Cassandra. Parents died in a terrorist attack, so now I'm looking after her. But this is no place for the kid to grow up. I need someone who can keep her safe. I can't do it, with my leg and all." Shadow grabbed a first aid kit and pulled out the SAM splint and a canister of biofoam. Bill cringed as he looked at the canister. "I hate that stuff." Shadow ignored his complaint and injected it, watching Bill grit his teeth as it did it's work. She wrapped the splint in place and put the kit back into it's place on the wall. "We've got a spare room, you can stay here if you want. Probably safer too, Nash's people will be after you now." Shadow nodded, going off to drop her bag into the room Bill motioned towards.

"Cassie should be home from school in half an hour. And don't worry, there's a lock on the door of that room." The man on the couch said as shadow walking into the room.

It wasn't large, but it was considerably larger from the quarters she'd had so far. With a bed in the left corner, a couch next to it, a desk across from the bed under the window with a laptop on it and a closet next to the door, there was still plenty of room left. Dumping her bag on the chair next to the bed, she checked out the door directly across from the entrance. A small bathroom with a toilet, shower and sink greeted her, and Shadow walked out again.

She pulled a standard issue M6D Magnum Sidearm and slid it under the pillow. She glanced in her bag and grinned. _Not exactly standard tourist luggage…_ Stuffed carefully inside were enough weapons to fight a small war. Grenades, two SMG's, two BR55's, a shotgun, two M6D's and a dozen clips of ammo for each. Along with it were a couple of canisters of biofoam, a comm., a data pad, a map, a tactical hologram projector, fake ID cards, a real encrypted ID card incase she needed to pull rank and a complete first aid kit.

She closed the bag and threw it under the bed. Locking the door, she walked down the stairs.

"Satisfied?" Shadow nodded with a smile. "Would you mind picking Cassie up from school? With Nash and his lapdogs as annoyed as they are, I'd feel safer if she wasn't alone."

"Off course." She'd spotted the picture of the girl on the cabinet, so recognizing her wouldn't be a problem. The map on her PDA would show her where to go. Before heading outside, she headed back into her room, pulled a grenade out of her bag and hid it in a pocket on her belt. Locking the door behind her after she'd hidden her bag, she headed into the garage and outside.

The streets were clear.


	13. Part II: 2 Starting

Authors note.

Sorry for the delay guys, I hit a writers block the size of a cruiser and it just wouldn't slip out of my system. (pun intended). Things should be getting a bit easier now, as it's going to be more action. I'm REALLY bad at writing peaceful situations.

**jakster02:** I'm glad you're still around :) Hope you like this chapter!

I feel I have to explain a few things that might cause some confusion, as well as point out a few things about characters. So, as a little faq:

**Why is there a Part II?**  
Because this way it is easier to find and I will not have to re-explain everything. And I hate it when people post a lot of things separately, it not only clogs up the web, it also makes a mess of things and is just plain annoying. I'm not looking to make my story list appear longer, I'll leave that to the people who feel longer authored lists make you a better author. Hell knows we have plenty of those around here.

**How many parts are you planning to do?**  
I have ideas for at least 4 more, stretching to beyond halo 3. Some are already partially written.

**Beyond halo 3? Any chance of original characters appearing? **  
If you mean am I going to solve the cliffhanger Bungie conveniently left us, then No. Neither will I tie it in with Ghosts of Onyx. However one or two not-so-major characters might make an appearance. But don't expect any of the major characters, I hate writing existing characters. I just can't seem to do them justice. Those ideas stay in my head, where they belong.

**What the hell is Shadow doing on earth and not on the front lines?**  
Read chapter 12 and you'll see.

**Why is she so short and not as pale as the others?**  
Lack of the 5 meals a day, and she doesn't have the armor. And although I'm a nice example that sunlight doesn't have to give your skin much color either (it's hilarious on game conventions), it's just so.

Think I've covered most of it… If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them. And now.. I'll shut up and let you read ;) Don't forget to review on your way out!!

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**29**** June 2529****  
City of Houston, Texas,  
Earth.**

The school was as grey and dull as the rest of the street. A large group of civilians had gathered, waiting for the bell to ring. Shadow, thinking to herself what a strategical mess this place was, stood off to the side a bit, away from the crowd. She couldn't help but wonder if everyone was simply stupid, because they were bunched up like a pack of animals on a fresh meal. The image of throwing a grenade in there was convincing enough to stay away from them.

A bell rang, announcing the end of another day. The sound was vaguely familiar somewhere in the back of her mind, but she couldn't even remember where from. A whole river of kids streamed out onto the courtyard, screaming, laughing and chasing each other. Soon enough, the parents had located their kids, dragging them off to home, some under loud protest.

She scanned the mass for Cassandra, remembering how she'd looked form a picture in the back of the garage, but she had no idea if that was recent or not. Bill seemed to assume anyone who couldn't find out for themselves which girl was her, wasn't qualified for the job anyway. She appreciated the way he thought, the man was absolutely right. Eventually she found the right girl, and the child looked none too happy.

"Oh great. Not another one." Shadow figured she was about 13 years old, but she wasn't exactly sure. Her mouth was big enough, for sure. She crossed her arms.

"This isn't how I prefer to spend my time either, so shut up and get moving." The girl rolled her eyes and walked two meters in the lead. Shadow had no idea what to say, she wasn't trained to handle children, let alone teenagers. The girl huffed as they walked into an alley.

"So what's your 'skill', knitting? I don't need your help and I don't want it. So go back to wherever it is you came from and leave me alone."

"I'd love to do that, but I have my orders. Now shut your traphole and keep walking, we're being followed." Shadow said.

"How the hell do you know that?" The girl asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Instinct, experience and a HUD. Don't look back, just pretend to be…-" She

never got to finish the sentence as five men stepped around the corner in front of them. Shadow had her pistol trained squarely between the eyes of the guy in the lead by the time she'd stopped walking. The four following had stepped up behind them. She rolled her eyes, annoyed. _What is wrong with these people? Don't they have anything better to do?_

"Now now, put the gun down, you don't want us to have to open fire, now do you?" She caught herself before she grunted in frustration as Nash stepped to the front. "We have some unfinished business, you and I. You see, when you kicked my ass, you made me the laughing stock of the whole neighborhood. And I can't have that."

"Fuck off Nash" Cassie cut in, hands on her hips. Shadow grinned, the girl definitely picked up everything from her grandfather. When nash took a step towards Cassandra, Shadow stepped in between.

"Your business is with me, not her."

"My main business is with her gramps, she's just collateral damage. Kill her, and he's down and out. Getting rid of you as well is a nice bonus, one I intent to claim. But her first. Step aside." Nash raised a handgun, clicking off the safety. Cassie gasped in horror.

"I don't think so." Nash shrugged, firing two rounds in quick succession. Shadow knew moving would mean the girl's death, so she stood and caught both bullets in her left side. She flinched slightly as the bullets impacted, but stood her ground, blood seeping through her shirt. The second Nash had fired, so had she. The three men behind Nash fell, each with a hole dead between their eyes. Nash looked shocked, but quickly recovered.

"You're still standing? Fine, we'll do this the hard way…"

"I'm actually starting to miss the Covenant." Shadow said, rolling her eyes at the walking cliché called Nash. The man sounded more like the bad imitations of movies some marines did then an actual person. She wondered where he got the inspiration from.

"I believe this is yours. Let me be so kind as to give it back." The man pulled out a knife she quickly recognized as her own. She'd lodged it in his shoulder a few hours ago. "Standard issue UNSC. So, they're sending female marines to deal with us now? I'm disappointed, don't they have anything better to throw at us? If the rumors are true they do…" She knew better then to give an answer, the man was fishing for intell. When he suddenly leaped forward, knife out, she threw Cassandra to the side as she sidestepped the blow.

Since Nash was using her knife, she didn't have one. They'd only allowed her to bring one knife, instead of the usual six. When he swung the knife at her again, she leapt back, out of his arm's reach. A swift kick to his arm had him cry out in pain, and she quickly stepped up to grab the knife. He gasped in shock as she was suddenly up close and landing a straight up punch on his chin, knocking him backwards.

The force of the blow knocked him to his feet, but he was back up within seconds. Shadow had reclaimed her knife by now, throwing it to the girl off the side. Cassandra caught it, smiled and charged at one of the four remaining men. Shadow, knowing the girl couldn't take on all four at once, took on the two closest to her. One of them reached for his rifle, but he just wasn't fast enough. By now, the world was moving in slow-motion to her, and she had punched in his skull before the man knew what was happening. His buddy had his gun out already, but she whirled around him as she dodged the bullets, the pieces of metal impacting harmlessly on the wall. The man yelped in shock as he missed at point blank, but didn't have time to wonder why. A quick twist of his head snapped his neck into pieces, killing him instantly.

Cassandra had, amazingly, stabbed the man in his heart, but he was still up, and screaming at the top of his lungs. Shadow rammed in his skull, ending his misery. The last one sneaked up behind her, but she swung around, landing her leg in his knees. The man dropped, and she finished him off with a kick to the chin.

That only left Nash, who was a few inches from panicking. He stared only for a few seconds, mouth open, and then ran off around the corner.

Shadow walked over to Cassandra, who handed her the knife.

"That was so cool! Where'd you learn to do that?!" She gasped, pointing at her side. "You're hurt!"

"Bullets generally have that effect, yes." Closer inspection showed the bullets were still lodged in the wound. That explained the sting. "Haul ass, we're getting out of here." She walked off, pulling her pistol back out of it's holster. She'd conserved some ammo by taking Nash on without it, but she wasn't taking any chances now. They quickly made their way back to the garage.

XXX

Bill was waiting for them at the door, looking none too happy. When he noticed something was wrong, he quickly let them inside, sealing the door. Shadow sat down on one of the kitchen chairs, carefully tearing off the lower part of her shirt. Cassandra showed up with the first aid kit. A quick checking of the contents showed her nothing she needed was in it. She'd already used the biofoam for Bill earlier today, and now only bandages were left.

"Get my backpack, it's in my room, under my bed." Cassie shot off, returning with the none-too-light backpack shadow had brought with her. The girl handed her the pack, and Shadow quickly pulled out her own kit.

"You're not going to die, are you?" Cassie asked, worried. Shadow realized the girl had turned about completely. All it took was taking two bullets for her.

"I'm fine, don't' worry."

"You've got enough weapons in there to fight a small war!" Bill said, studying the weapons she'd brought along. "What're you going to do, kill every Innie in this place?!"

"_… A few minutes ago, police officers found the scene of what appears to be a war between the local crime gangs. Each of the bodies recovered from the scene shows evidence of severe impact trauma, though the cause is yet unknown. Investigators are not excluding the fact it was a revenge action, and the men were ambushed by an overwhelming force from another gang. Two of the men appear to have their skulls smashed in, and two others have their necks snapped, though it is yet unknown how this might have happened. Three others did from what appear to be perfect headshots, though the police have yet to confirm this. Official statement just issued by a spokesman claims this was an intense fight, and luckily no innocents were harmed. The weather for tomorrow is the same as the rest of the week, sunny and…" _Cassie switched off the tv, settling down at the table to watch. Shadow pulled one of the bullets out with a pincer, grimacing. Bill looked remotely shocked.

"Crime war my ass! Three perfect headshots, two snapped necks and two smashed skulls? Like hell that was done by locals. That has special forces written all over it. Whoever the hell was stupid enough to even consider this local work?!" Bill said, accusingly glaring at Shadow.

"Section two. They're covering it up." She said simply.

"ONI? So this was your work? Girl, you're creeping me out. However the hell did you smash in their skulls?!"

"With a punch." She pulled out the second bullet, then filled up the holes with bio foam, bandaging it off. Bill huffed.

"I don't work for ONI, and frankly, refusing their offer nearly got me killed, but they're covering this up because it's classified. I'm going to get some rest, let this heal." She got up, walking off to her room, backpack slung across her right shoulder. With a click, the room shut, and she left Bill and Cassie staring at each other.

XXX

While Cassandra was off doing her homework, Bill stepped into his office. He picked clicked on his working comm-unit, putting in a number he hadn't called in quite a while. After four beeps two transfer tones and another 5 beeps, someone answered.

_"Thomason." _The voice on the opposite end of the line answered. Not having the money to buy a visual comm-unit, Bill had settled for an old-fashioned voice-only system. Still, it worked well enough, and people centuries ago had managed just fine without video communications.

"Alec, it's Bill."

_"As in, Bill from way back?"_ The other end asked, amazed.

"Yea."

_"Good to hear form you again, it's been a while. How're you? And how's Cassie doing? She still missing her folks?"_

"Every day. But that's not why I'm calling. I need a favor. You're an admiral now right?"

_"Last time I checked, I was. What's wrong?"  
_

"Can you look up someone for me? The file might be classified, but you're the only bobo I know."

_"__What kind of people did you get involved with this time Bill? And stop calling me that."_ The reply, annoyed.

"Lets just say I have a new babysitter for Cassie, but there's something about her that's not quite right." The man on the other end snorted.

_"Ten to one she's an assassin working for the covenant, knowing your track record of friends." _ Bill laughed. He had a point there. His last associate turned out to be a suicide bomber.

"I do have a bad list, don't I? One's an admiral."

_"Not funny. All right, fine. Last name?"  
_

"That's the weird part, she never told me. First name's Shadow, if she told the truth." If they'd been talking face to face, the admiral's expression would've given the answer.

_"Shadow? As in, tall, brown hair and eyes, large backpack, lots of scars?" _he asked, surprised.

"Same one." The other end fell silent. "Alec? You still there?" it took the man a full minute to gather a reply. In truth, he was cross-checking something on a datapad.

_"Bill, if you were my type, I'd kiss you."_Bill snorted, laughing at his old friend.

"You hit your head on something?" It wouldn't have been the first time the man had started spouting nonsense because of a head injury. It was an old joke between them, dating back several decades. A run in with a bulkhead had caused hilarity for two full days, as the man had thought he saw bunnies on the bridge and butterflies on consoles. Eventually they'd hit him with a 2 by 2 piece of wood to shut him up after he'd spend three hours talking about hula dancing guinea pigs.

_"I can't tell you what you want to know, and trust me if I say, you don't even want to."_ Bill snorted again._ "She knows what she's doing,"_

"Yea, like kills half a crime gang in hand to hand combat with two bullets in her side! Don't give me that bullshit Alec, I've been to the front lines too, I've seen some crazy shit. There is just no way that's possible."

_"Bill, don't. it´s classified. You'll learn, eventually. I can't see ONI keeping this a secret forever, not with the way this war is going. But until then, promise me you'll keep your questions to yourself. She's the kind of person you really don't want to cross."_ It only made him more suspicious, classified people were always trouble. Especially if the Office of Naval Intelligence was mentioned in the same sentence. Everyone quickly learned not to get involved with them the moment they hit their first field mission.

"Dammit alec, what's going on?"

_"It's classified." _ Short, simple, and exactly the answer Bill didn't want to hear.

"So is this meeting, and everyone knows it."

_"This secret is far, far more dangerous."_ A rolling of eyes, unnoticed.

"You're not helping. I called you to find out if I could trust her, not to become even more suspicious!"

_"We're entrusting humanity's survival to these people. Yes, you can trust her._

"Now you're scaring me."

_"I've already said too much. She's working for me, I send her there. Trust her, help her wherever you can, and for god's sake Bill, don't get her killed."_

"Yea, thanks." A short beep ended the transmission, silence claiming the room. Bill didn't notice his granddaughter standing in the doorway until she coughed. He looked up, surprised that he hadn't noticed her the entire time. When he asked how long she'd been standing there, she shrugged but didn't answer. He sighed, a little confused.

Cassie asked him what that all meant, but Bill had nothing to tell her that would explain it. All he could tell her is that he didn't know, but trusted the man he just spoke to. He told her exactly that, and then send her back to her homework.

XXX

**13**** July 2529****  
City of Houston, Texas,  
Earth.**

That was two weeks ago.

"I've been following them for a few days, but it doesn't seem like they have a main fallout point. I suspect they're working in cells to limit the risk of exposure." The local mall wasn't that big. Regardless, it seemed to be more crowded then any other. "What's this? It looks like an oversized grenade." One of the two people standing over the fruits and vegetables display help up a pineapple for the other to see.

"That's a pineapple Shadow."

"Oh." The girl grabbed the fruit out of the hand of her older counterpart and put it back on the display.

"I've never really seen them all go in the same building either, they all seem to be each other's enemies. Okay, we need cheese, bread and pancake mix."

"I suppose I can't just shoot the queue at the bread stand?" Shadow asked, eyeing the 20 or some people all waiting to get a bread from the bakery.

"It's not that easy."

"A grenade?"

"No."

"Ordering them?" She tried, knowing the answer anyway. She'd found out a few days ago the girl was a lot less stressed if she herself wasn't acting like she was at the front lines. So she'd adapted, as much as she could.

"They're not soldiers." Cassie laughed.

"Okay, bad plan." She admitted, tossing a piece of cheese into the basket Cassie was carrying. "That doesn't mean they are actually rivals. It's a very sound cover to appear rival gangs, though I suspect each gang is one of the cells. Question is, who is in charge. I've been monitoring their transmissions, but some are encoded beyond what I can decrypt. They forgot to pack me an AI."

"Glaring doesn't help fasten the line."

"It works against grunts…" Cassie chose to ignore that.

"I've been able to piece together some of the things I've picked up though. They're definitely planning something, because shipping documents include package of stolen weapons and ammunition, and high resolution sensor sweeps from a prowler in orbit show enough explosives to take out a small base. I've also found plans of the base's life-support system and maintenance tunnels on one of them, which he happily shared after he lost this head." Shadow said.

"You're merciless…"

"It's war. Which brings me to something else. If this thing blows, they'll know where to come looking. Bill can look after himself, but you're not trained to fight." Cassie was about to protest, but Shadow held up her hand. "Street brawls are nothing like an all out war-zone. And Nash's men aren't soldiers, they waste their time talking and showing off, but the other groups are more like the other Innies I've encountered, and they'll shoot to kill." The girl gulped. "Bill doesn't completely agree, but he sees the point. I'd like you to at least know how to fire a sidearm to defend yourself if this breaks out before my schedule."

"You're going to teach me how to shoot? Cool!" The girl considered something for a moment. "But.. I don't have time for it. I mean, tomorrow is hand-in day for our history homework. And I'm behind already." She sighed, muttering something about stalling and doing other thing.

"What's it about?"

"The first interplanetary war." She grunted. Obviously, history wasn't what the girl liked most at school. Shadow grinned.

"I have an idea on how to solve that. We've got more important things to worry about then homework." She wondered how much of history admiral Thomason remembered. He'd found out soon enough once she send him this. She considered doing it herself, but that would cost time she couldn't afford to waste. And who'd waste time on homework about a war the UN fought, if you had an admiral of said faction doing everything he can to help? Waste of resources not to make use of that. He send her out here after all, high time he paid for that.

After half an hour, they were finally finished getting the bread, and the pancake mix was quickly found. The trip on the bus back to the garage was hilarity to Cassandra, as Shadow had only ever used military vehicles to get around, not public transportation. When she pointed out the noise these people were making and the complete lack of order as a young boy landed on top of her as he climbed over a chair, Cassie laughed. Shadow looked about ready to bolt, so they took the nearest stop and walked the rest of the way. Shadow pointed out she was not doing that again, ever.

XXX

"That is so not fair!" Cassie pouted as another can fell off the table. "You're cheating!" She lined up her own pistol, firing at the next. The shot was off by a few centimeters.

Shadow fired another round, in the precise middle of the can. Cassie swore.

"How the fuck do you do that?!"

"Aiming and a lot of practice. Try the next. Take a good look before you fire, you can't shoot something without knowing where it is." The girl fired another round, still missing.

"Oh. One more thing." Cassie looked up.

"Now what?"

"You might want to try zooming in." She did as told, scoring a hit. "They didn't put the scope on that thing for fun."

"Zoom. That [i]_is[/i]_ cheating…" Shadow shrugged. Taking advantage of what was provided wasn't cheating, not in her book at least. Obviously the girl felt different about it. But she was making progress, the first few attempts landed a few new holes in the wall and Bill diving for cover.

Thomason hadn't been too happy when she'd send him the history homework, complaining along the lines of "graduating years ago" and "not being an admiral to do homework for kids." But she'd silenced by mentioning he was more then welcome to take over here. He suddenly remembered a meeting he had to attend.

Cassandra scored another hit, and Bill nodded. The girl was picking up fast. Now she'd only had to learn how to reload and hit moving targets, and she'd be fine. The back wall of the garage was a meter thick solid concrete, so it made a fine backup wall to use for the practice. Bill had, wisely, taking up position behind the warthog he was working on, not wanting to risk a stray shot going his way. Several already had gone the wrong way, as the shattered glass of the window of a car showed. Bill had sighed, noting that it would take another week to get that replaced.

It took the girl a full 30 seconds to reload, and both Shadow and Bill winced. Any reload slower then 10 seconds got you 50 laps around the compound in bootcamp, and it was obvious both had seen their fair share of those laps before getting the reload done fast. Every second you wasted reloading could get you killed in a fight, and every soldier knew that. Cassie tried again, 25 seconds this time, and Bill grunted in annoyance.

A few tips, points of importance and a few examples later, she got it in 15 seconds, which Bill found was quick enough. Shadow disagreed, but let the matter drop. IT was getting late anyway, and she had more surveillance to do tonight. After Cassandra had gone to bed, Shadow was done preparing to move out. Bill stopped her halfway to the door, a piece of paper in hand.

"I've been asking around a bit, see who knew something use full. This is a map of the northern part of the neighborhood, according to a delivery boy, he was told to deliver an unmarked package to a warehouse in that area. They paid him a lot to stay silent, but I know his mother from a few years back, she got him to tell her. I've marked the location, plus a points to worry about. He remembered a few spots of guards and security gates." He handed her the map, an old fashioned map on paper, but it served it's purpose. She nodded her thanks, checked her ammo one last time, and took off.

Getting to the northern part of the place wasn't that difficult. The streets were deserted, and there were plenty of shadows and cover for her to move around unseen. She leaped over a wall, dropping down behind a pair of crates. Two guards were standing at a high fence, and the sign showed it was electrified. A nearby building provided a fire stairs close enough to use as a crossing point. She half jumped, half climbed over the gate to the stairs, making her way up until she was high enough to jump over the fence. A quick look and leap landed her on the ground, and she rolled to soften the impact. The roll landed her right behind a parked car, and away from a guard on his round. She spotted a truck that could lead her up to the roof, just as her HUD tracked the guard turning the corner. She sprinted to the other side, climbing up the truck. A flashlight announced another guard, and she dropped flat on top of the truck. Her HUD picked up his life signs, tracking him as he walked past.

The moment he rounded the corner, she knew the other guard was on his way back. She leaped up the roof of the warehouse, making her way over to a small ventilation roster. These buildings weren't designed for secure housing, but for storing goods. Each room had a large roster in the ceiling leading outside to vent the smells from the goods. She found one that looked promising, dropped flat next to it, and set down to listen.

Obviously, they weren't expecting anyone to use this approach, because nobody had made to use any form of protection from people listening in. They were talking out loud, no background noise, and directly under the roster. She thought it was almost too easy, but then they weren't expecting someone to get past their rather lame security. She thanked her luck, listened for half an hour, and decided she'd heard enough. If she sticked around longer, they might get suspicious, and she wasn't going to take chances.

She took the truck-route back from the roof, timing her run with the guards their patrol, and used a crate as leap-up point for the fence. She was up and over by the time the second guard got back around the corner. The moment she was over the fence, a car approached. She stepped back, blending in the darkness of the night. She recognized Nash as he nodded to the guards at the gate, and confirmed her theory on everything. She slipped away into an alley, and set back for her hideout.

Things were clicking in to place slowly, but steadily.

**TBC.**


End file.
